Pan's New Boyfriend

by IndigoSnake16

A sequel to Bra's New Boyfriend. Peace has returned to Earth, though it did not come without sacrifice. Pan, now struggling with the loss of a very close friend, realizes that it is quite difficult to find true happiness. Even as she and the Briefs attempt to find the dragon balls, Pan knows that there is a real possibility that she must learn to live without him.

8. Chi-Chi's Vacation

AN: Sorry in advance for the insane length. I have way too much time on my hands since my job has shut down for the time being…

---

Vegeta stood in one place for hours that night. After bringing the unconscious Auden back to Bulma's property, he placed him in the medical ward. Bulma was already up having been awakened by Vegeta's sudden departure. The sharp spike in ki had roused him quickly despite a long day at Tien's dojo. Even though it was peacetimes, he was forever sensitive to such spikes and it had saved him on plenty of occasions. One never knew when someone might try to kill them in their sleep with a well-placed ki blast. That wasn't the case this time. He sensed someone from far off with dizzying amounts of ki being emitted all at once. He'd never felt anything like it, at least not this uncontrolled.

"Vegeta, what is it?" Bulma asked alarmed as he'd sat up in bed.

"Something's not right. It might be trouble. Just wait here."

With that, after throwing on something presentable, he flew through the window and sped off towards the source. Whoever it was, their ki level was increasing exponentially in a way that might end up killing the person. Perhaps it was intentional. One could in theory do this as some sort of kamikaze attack, but there didn't seem to be signs of struggle, just one person powering up. He didn't get very many answers by the time he arrived. He recognized the man immediately after he forced him out of his unstable state. He seemed out of sorts so there was no way to interrogate him. He'd wait until the man was conscious again. Bulma had seen to the bruising around his abdomen. Though Auden had been coughing up blood before, he appeared to have repaired the most grievous injuries according to Bulma's scanner. Perhaps his own energy had naturally switched to self-preservation.

Vegeta's eyes were closed as he paid special attention to Auden and what he might do next. His energy levels were ramping up again and he was still unconscious. It didn't seem like such a great combination. He heard an audible groan from Auden. Vegeta finally opened his eyes watching as sweat began to bead down the other's face and he was quite clearly uncomfortable, turning from one side to the next. It wasn't too much longer before his eyes whipped open as if he'd been forced to do so. Though it was subtle, he could see him shivering under the mounting stress as he sat up. He already seemed to be bursting at the seams.

"Again? It's happening again," the man said under his breath.

"I see you're finally awake," Vegeta said drawing Auden's attention.

He looked at him fearfully. "What do you want?"

"I'm not going to hit you again, if that's what's you're worried about—unless you give me no other choice. Now what were you trying to do back there?"

"I-I don't know. I have no idea what's happening. I don't know why I'm here. Just…Where am I exactly?"

"I took you to Bulma's place. It's a lot safer and less people about."

Auden was already drenched in sweat and Vegeta could tell that he was moments away from unleashing his formidable aura again. "I have to get out of here," he said anxiously.

"No, let's not have a repeat of last time. Look at me," he ordered.

Auden paused and followed instructions. "What?"

"You have to focus on something, anything. You just have to regain control."

"I could just gather it all into one place like last time and just…"

"You mean a ki blast? That won't do any good. This is your power. Even if you expend it, it will come back again eventually, as you can see."

"Then what do I do?" he asked angrily.

"I know it's easier said than done, but you just have to calm down," Vegeta said with arms crossed. "That's all. Try to bring your energy under your control."

"I can't—

"You can, if you want to."

"But I tried already and it hasn't worked."

"Try again."

"I already tried over and over again. It doesn't work. I don't know what to do," he said desperately.

"It's not the end of the world—

"Please," Auden began slowly. Vegeta watched as tears started forming—it was difficult to watch. "Please just end it. It would be easy for you, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not going to get rid of you," Vegeta said with finality in his tone.

"It's alright. I promise. I don't really have anything to live for. I just don't want to hurt anyone and I don't want to keep doing this."

"This is ridiculous," Vegeta snapped. "You won't get anywhere if you don't actually try."

"Listen, I will destroy this entire complex, if you don't just get on with it. I know you could do it. Just punch me a little harder than last time…"

Vegeta advanced on the desperate man and Auden bowed his head in defeat likely expecting Vegeta to do as he wanted. Instead, Vegeta quickly knocked him out before his energy grew out of control. "Bulma," he called out.

She wasn't too far away and she'd likely heard everything that had been said. "You rang?"

"Do you have something that can keep him unconscious for a while?"

"I swear I'm starting to feel more like a nurse than an engineer these days. Yeah, I have something," she said as she went over to a case that contained vials of medicine and a device to administer it.

Vegeta watched as she inserted the mechanical syringe into one of the vials and drew a small amount of the liquid.

"First off, why on Earth did you hit him that hard before?" Bulma asked as she looked for a location on his neck to insert the syringe.

"I misjudged his strength. The way he was reacting to my attacks, I thought he had some experience fighting. I didn't realize how much of a paper tiger he was until I was able to land a hit."

"Well, I could have told you that had I known who it was. I heard him…" her voice trailed as her voice became quiet, "he wanted you to kill him." By then she'd finished giving him the medicine that would keep him under. Slowly, she turned back to Vegeta. She wore a pained expression. "I didn't know—I guess I kind of suspected—that things had gotten so bad for him. I've never seen anyone give up so easily over the first sign of trouble."

"It happens," Vegeta said unable to think of anything comforting to say. He didn't want to tell her that he'd seen that look before on other's faces many times before. He could tell when someone was just being dramatic or actually lacked all hope. Auden had been serious. He'd been willing to surrender his life just like that. Perhaps things might change the next time around, but this certainly couldn't have been the first time he'd thought along those lines. He'd likely seen a convenient opportunity and attempted to use it to his advantage.

"So do you have any idea what's happening?" Bulma asked changing the subject.

"I've never seen this in humans, but I suppose it was always possible that one could simply be born with a higher than normal ki level. Humans aren't naturally aware of their ki. They can go their whole lives and never have accessed it. It has to be pointed out to them somehow. I don't know if this has to do with the fact that he first used his ki much later on in life. Perhaps it's simply dangerous to wait that long."

"He was here helping me at the lab not too long ago. He seemed normal, well, at least ki-wise. Do you think he did all this on his own one day?"

"I doubt it. Someone taught him and it was likely Chi-Chi because she was nearby the first time I felt that spike."

"Chi-Chi? I don't know why she'd be involved with this kind of thing. I can barely get her to come out of the house and now she's just randomly teaching people about ki?"

"We don't know all the details," Vegeta said wearily. "I'll talk to her. I think the main issue is that his base level is far beyond average and he's not quite strong enough to regulate it. The mind is out-of-sync with the body."

"As soon as you bring 'the mind' into it, I don't know if he even stands a chance. You know he has to take a million and one pills just to be somewhat coherent."

"I don't think any of that matters."

"How do you know?" Bulma argued back

"I don't see why it would. If you think every fighter I've met proficient in ki was somehow sound of mind…" Vegeta snorted at this and decided to leave the statement hanging. "I think it's more to do with the lack of experience and confidence. We probably don't have too much longer before he wakes, I'll see what Chi-Chi knows about any of this."

Vegeta left her in the room with Auden. Perhaps her presence might be less antagonistic than the guy who'd nearly killed him before. Besides, he didn't really think he'd be able to speak with Chi-Chi. Her disdain for him wasn't really a secret. Perhaps it would have been better to have Bulma get her on the phone.

"Hello?" came Gohan's tired voice upon calling the Son's house phone. It was in the early hours of the morning.

"Put Chi-Chi on the phone."

He waited for some protest from Gohan, but it didn't come. "I don't know what this is about, but I'll see if she wants to talk."

After a few excruciating minutes of growing impatience, Chi-Chi finally came to the phone. "Yes?" she said in wary tones.

"What do you know about Auden? Did you teach him how to access his ki?"

"Look, Bulma told me about how she was worried about him and I was just trying to do my part. I wasn't teaching him how to fight or anything, I just wanted him to be more in tuned with his own energy. When Gohan showed me that, it made life a little more bearable. I thought I'd do the same for Auden. I didn't expect any of that to happen. How could I? Is he okay? I felt something similar earlier."

"He's not okay, but I just wanted to learn some more details. In your opinion, do you think this happened because of his age? His ki has been dormant for so long that it simply presents itself like this?"

"No," Chi-Chi said, "You can't really think that's case. That would mean everybody past the age of fifty is a ticking time bomb. Ki doesn't work like that. Whether you use it or not, it isn't ever 'dormant'. We're just not aware that it's there in the first place."

"So that means…"

"Mind over matter. He was perfectly fine until he knew it was there. Before this, he was perfectly able to control its presence despite how much of it he happened to have. He just has to get used to it being there and maybe some physical training could help with that."

"My thoughts exactly."

Chi-Chi snorted at this. "Right. I'm coming over there. You might just end up making things worse."

"Do what you want," he said with a frown before hanging up on her.

She was likely going to come whether he wanted her to or not. Maybe it was for the best. In a snap, he was rushing back into the room as he felt another startling spike in ki—Auden was awake again. He paused in the doorway noticing that Bulma was talking to him maybe she could get through to him in a way that he couldn't.

"It's me, Bulma, remember?" she said in friendly tones.

This seemed to have the opposite effect on him. "I know who the hell you are," he growled at her. The golden aura around him seemed to intensify and Bulma shrank back in fear.

Vegeta was there in half a second placing himself in front of Bulma. "Just get out of here Bulma, it's not safe."

Auden's eyes were glued to her and he watched as she made a quick escape. He seemed ready to pounce.

"You're dealing with me now," Vegeta said trying to get his attention. Auden's eyes still seemed to be following her movements even though she was well out of eyesight. "Auden!" Vegeta barked.

Slowly, his eyes returned to Vegeta. "What?" His tone had returned to normal.

"Do you still want to die?"

His expression became enigmatic. "I don't know why you have to drag this out. I don't see any other choice."

"You're doing it right now. You haven't managed to destroy the whole compound."

"For now and just barely. Not for much longer. If I could just do the same thing I did last time…"

"I told you—you can't keep doing that. It will just keep coming back. You know that's not a solution."

"Then what else is there?" he demanded frustrated. "What do you want me to do? I don't know how else to say it."

He seemed marginally calmer than before. Perhaps he could hold out long enough to not completely self-destruct. "Follow me," Vegeta said.

Auden looked up at him questioningly but didn't voice any misgivings as he simply climbed off the cot. Feeling such immense power nearby easily put Vegeta on edge. It usually meant the promise of a challenging duel. His expectations had already been subverted since the moment he'd taken him down with one measly fist.

Vegeta took the man outside much further from the building they'd just exited. It was cool and breezy that night—perfect for a little impromptu duel albeit not one he would likely get any enjoyment from.

"Now, I want you to fight me," Vegeta stated plainly. "Just use your instincts."

"I've never fought anyone a day in my life."

"Surely, you know how to at least throw a punch."

"In theory."

"Alright," Vegeta said with crossed arms. "I'm waiting."

Auden wore a confused look on his face. "So…just to clarify. You want me to punch you?"

"Yes," Vegeta said impatiently, "And I'll retaliate. That's how fights work. I won't hit you as hard as last time."

He seemed unconcerned with his last remark. It was likely because he still had a death wish. At the present, he seemed to be handling his ki well enough though it was still much to high and his aura continued roaring around him. He wished he'd get on with it already. Auden stepped forward finally and unleashed the most pathetic punch he'd ever bore witness to aimed at his chest. Vegeta had to stop himself from swatting it away.

"Is that all you can muster?" Vegeta asked flabbergasted. "Harder next time."

"Any harder and I might break something."

"The guy who wants me to kill him outright is scared of a little pain?"

"Death is a lot swifter than suffering in agonizing pain."

"Harder!" Vegeta barked trying to get a rise out of him.

This didn't seem to work and the man seemed more perturbed than anything else. He did strike out again, but Vegeta could hardly register the force behind it.

Vegeta huffed at this. "I forgot—humans and their fragile bones. It's a wonder they can even handle the gravity on their own planet!" he finished frustrated. "Are you really this weak? That was a pitiful display!"

Auden appeared unaffected by his insults. "I fail to see how this helps other than being a distraction."

"Again," Vegeta demanded.

Auden gave him a hard look, but then complied. As if to spite him, this new punch seemed just as featherweight as the last. This time, Vegeta retaliated and Auden quickly evaded much to his chagrin. It was just like before at the apartments. Auden seemed able to react much faster than what his actual physical strength would suggest. In many ways, his speed was on par with the ki level he was emitting, but everything else didn't make much sense. Vegeta held back his strength to excruciating levels as he went on the offense against Auden. He could have easily ascended to ensure that he got a hit in, but he didn't think it was important that he did, though it would have helped his slightly bruised pride. In this way, their mock fight continued and Vegeta forced him to react faster and more frequently. He even left obvious openings for Auden to throw a few hits of his own. In the first few instances, Auden didn't take the chance, but as the fight drew on, he finally struck out again. Every hit that Auden connected was just as disappointing as the previous one. In fact, Vegeta felt the entire duel was pale and uninteresting. It would have been embarrassing for anyone to watch—that's if they could keep up with the speed in which it was occurring.

After close to ten minutes, Auden's stamina gave out. That became quite obvious when Vegeta was able to get in a few gentle hits and his aura dissipated. Vegeta called it quits afterwards. The entire exchange left a bad taste in his mouth—he was glad it was over for sanity reasons. Auden was breathing hard as he sank to the ground in exhaustion.

"Do you see now?" Vegeta asked.

Auden took a few moments to respond waiting for his heavy breathing to subside somewhat. "See what?" he asked looking at him quizzically.

"Your ki is far more controlled right now and you didn't have to expend it."

Realization came to his face. "Y-You're right," he said in surprise. "I can still feel it, but…it's not like how it was before."

"Remember that feeling. I don't think you should have further issues in that regard, but, in your case, I suppose things are a bit unpredictable."

"I think I should be fine now," he said in a knowing voice.

Vegeta supposed that he would know better than anyone if that was the case so he didn't push him on this point. "Now what do you plan to do next? I think receiving adequate physical training would be best."

"I don't see why I would ever want to do such a thing."

It wasn't a surprising response, but it was depressing all the same. Of course he wouldn't have any motivation to pursue combat training. Everyone, especially humans, always struggled with gaining more raw energy. As tenacious and promising as Malachi had been, that was always his downfall no matter how much he trained. Were it not for unforeseen circumstances, Malachi's ki level would have been far less than what it ended up being. Here was someone who had already bypassed that step and only had the fairly elementary task of increasing his own strength. It seemed wasted on one who was so sedentary and likely set in their ways.

These days he spent his time training other humans at Tien's dojo—humans starting off with decent fighting abilities and keen instincts. It was different training them than it had been with Malachi. He had a better sense in what he should be teaching and how it should be done. There were less distractions and they were fully willing students who ate up his every word and took his lessons seriously. He'd be lying if he said he didn't like the attention. He quickly recognized the flaws in the way he'd trained Malachi. He used that template and greatly improved on instruction. Vegeta had likely put Malachi's life at risk in most sessions from the very beginning forcing him to train until collapse and to continue afterwards after a slight recovery. Humans could not recover in the same way Saiyans did and, in fact, it was detrimental to their health to make them train that way. They needed rest and, depending on the fitness level, that rest could extend to a couple of days or else training ended up doing more harm than good. The same could be said about Saiyans, but to a much lesser extent. In some instances, it was even the opposite since Saiyans could bounce back from injuries faster with much more strength than before. In short, humans did not gain anything from brutal training tactics. There was no fast tracking, simply slow and steady strength training.

Giving up on training Malachi when they were just barely acquainted was regretful and something he couldn't stop thinking about. Malachi was his first human student and he couldn't help but compare every single other one to him. By now, Vegeta was sure his skills would have been quite formidable and his ki level would have followed in suit. Maybe he would have come up with more interesting techniques or even figured out Instant Transmission. He would have challenged him to more duels and impressed him with his overwhelming confidence. Going down this line of thinking, however, always put him into a despondent mood. The students he taught were confident and also respectful. While that was nice, he found himself longing for one of them to talk back, to not take him so seriously, to claim that they'll one day best him, to make him believe for just a few moments that Earth's denizens could figure out how to protect themselves once the Saiyans were no more.

Looking at Auden now, he saw wasted potential. For a second time in his life, he thought he'd found a human who could certainly surpass him. In reality, it was too good to be true as always.

"So that's it, huh," Vegeta said with a frown. "You're fine with being a weakling for the rest of your life."

This barely registered with Auden who had now laid down flat on the lawn likely waiting for his heart to stop beating so hard. "It doesn't bother me either way."

Vegeta wasn't sure how to get a rise out of him. Was there any way to make him interested in training? At this point, it seemed like a fool's errand. "And you would throw your life away at a moment's notice if you thought it was convenient."

"I try not to make too many people aware of that fact," he said wearily, "Or else they'll keep bringing it up."

"Being able to defend yourself would make it that much harder."

Auden gave him no response.

"Are you fine with leaving yourself so vulnerable? Living your life completely at the mercy of everyone else unable to carve out your own path as you see fit."

"Is this the sort of macho shit you tell yourself every night as a nice little bedtime story?" he asked drily. Auden sat up to look at him.

Vegeta was caught off guard by his tone, but it was a welcome change. He huffed at this. "Did I strike a nerve? Good."

"There's only so much BS I can take," Auden said looking away. "And you're making a lot of assumptions."

"From where I stand, it seems pretty accurate." Listening to Auden's heart skipping a beat gave Vegeta all the evidence he needed.

"Bulma was never good at keeping things to herself."

"She's told me very little about you aside from needing your expertise on her ongoing project. You're simply too much of an open book."

"Right," Auden said not buying his bluff. "How is that going, by the way?—her quest to find the dragon balls."

"She's no stranger to finding them. This just has the added step of finding a specific planet. As far as I know, the radar is operational and is currently being put to good use."

"Well, I hope she finds what she's looking for. It still seems a bit like fantasy."

"Luckily for us, it doesn't depend on whether you believe it or not."

"Isn't that often the case with reality?" he answered nonchalantly. "I just think it's foolish to get one's hope up about something that's highly unlikely. Even if I saw someone alive after I knew for certain that they were dead, I would still be dubious. It bends the laws of physics and one should always be cautious."

"I see there's no convincing you, but I'm not here to do that."

"No, you're not. You're still trying to convince me to do your silly training. I'm not interested. End of story."

Vegeta closed his eyes in irritation. "So be it. I suppose if there's evidence of your kind of power among humans, then there are others out there."

Auden gave no audible response to this. Instead, he made himself a bit more comfortable further spreading out his legs. Tension had long since dissipated from him and he seemed somewhat recovered from their little spar. Vegeta left him where he was since he no longer had business with him. If he wanted to stay, he was sure Bulma would accommodate him. If he didn't, then that was his prerogative.

He flew off for the medical ward where he still sensed Bulma to tell her the good news. Auden was no longer a danger to himself. Though everything was back to normal, Vegeta couldn't help but think that he could have done something more to convince him. Along with that, his doubts about bringing Malachi back were amplified after hearing the certainty in Auden's voice when he spoke about Malachi's death. Vegeta knew better. He'd seen people die and arise again plenty of times. Why then had his words troubled him so much? Why couldn't he shake his own doubts about this turning out in his favor?

---

Auden was glad when the spikey haired man finally left him in peace. To engage with someone so energetic and forceful was tiring. The sort of light he saw behind his eyes as he asked about training was troubling to say the least. Did he see some worth in him that he did not? He didn't want anyone to have such expectations for him. The possibility of failure became that much more likely. If there was one thing he could tell about the other, it was that he likely put a lot of stock in competition and raw strength.

"Auden?"

He looked back in surprise at the sound of his own name being spoken by the last person he thought he'd see that day. It was Chi-Chi standing a few yards away in her usual pink and green outfit.

"How did you get here?"

"Does it matter? I was worried about you and I came as fast as I could."

"Well, it must be some sort of miracle. I'm glad you're here."

"You look exhausted," she stated as she walked over and then took a seat next to him. "Someone must have forced you to run for more than a few seconds."

Auden chuckled at this. "Something like that."

"It was Vegeta wasn't it?"

"The really muscular guy with spiky hair?"

"A perfect description," she grinned. "I'm guessing he never introduced himself. Sounds just like him. The fact that you survived an encounter with him is pretty incredible."

"He's not so scary."

"Oh? Is that right?" Chi-Chi said amused. "No need to try to impress me. His mere voice is intimidating."

"I find women to be far more frightening."

"Typical. Spoken like someone who doesn't hang out with the opposite sex very often. Are we also hard to understand?"

"It's nothing like that. I do have a daughter, if you remember, who until recently rarely left my side. It's just from…personal experience. People like Vegeta are more straight-forward and far less insidious."

"It's a wonder you managed to deal with me for an entire day," she said in wonderment, "with opinions like that."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just a generalized view. Individuals are different."

"No offense taken. At least you're being honest. How did we get this sidetracked? Now I have a burning question that would completely derail this whole thing. First of all, how are you doing? Do you still feel like—well, you know…"

"Not anymore thanks to Vegeta. I don't know how to explain it, but after exerting myself, I was just able to control what he calls 'ki'. I didn't even realize when it happened. Now it seems so natural."

"I think it was just because you weren't used to it and to have such a high base level didn't help matters. I knew it had to be something simple though. It was always there, you just weren't aware of it until now."

"That's the strange part. Ki seems like quite an interesting concept. If it was always there though, why is it that I never felt like this before?"

"More research required, I guess. I'm no expert. When I was first aware of my own ki, it definitely boosted my self-confidence. I was hoping it would do the same for you."

"You could say that," he agreed thinking back on how dinner had gone last night.

The full ramifications of his ki awareness had not yet been discovered he suspected. In the same moment that he was perfectly fine with Vegeta finishing him off, he felt extremely powerful and the feeling of sweet power flowing through his veins was exhilarating—it was a strange dichotomy. He knew at some point, that he would want to feel that again, but he had a feeling that Vegeta would somehow know the very moment he did something like that and show up once again.

"That's all I really wanted. Well, mostly."

"Mostly?" he asked curiously. "What else did you want?"

"Like I said last time at the park. I'd like to do something other than staying at the house all the time and it's always good to get in some exercise on a daily basis."

"You're right. It's not good being inside all the time. I don't know if I'm too keen on jogging though."

Chi-Chi sighed at this. "Just a little jogging? And it doesn't have to be the only thing we do. I have quite a few things I could show you that's way less torture."

"I might have to take you up on that."

"You won't regret it," she said with a smile. "For some reason, being around you—I just want to reclaim my beauty and shape, if you know what I mean."

Auden looked at her amused. "Sounds like a midlife crisis."

Chi-Chi looked at him with pursed lips. "You're going to help me too," she insisted. "And tell me more about these 'de-aging' products."

"I'd be more than happy to."

"And please don't tell me that 'you're good the way you are' crap that Gohan always goes on about."

"I wasn't," he said confused, "I thought that was already obvious. I meant it when I said you were beautiful, but I would never try to stand in the way of someone who wants to better themselves."

"Oh, you're making me blush," she said with reddening cheeks. "How embarrassing!"

Auden couldn't hold back his widening smile. He knew he wasn't helping matters, but she was becoming increasingly easy on the eyes as she held both hands on her cheeks trying to cover up the evidence.

"You know exactly what you're doing," she accused him loudly.

He gave her the most innocent look he could muster. "I have no idea what you're talking about." That part was actually true considering he'd just restated the same compliment from earlier. Maybe she was taking him more seriously right now. Not to mention the plethora of compliments she'd already given him. "What about that other question you had?" he asked changing the subject so that she might recover. It had the opposite effect, however.

"It's a silly question come to think about it," she said quickly, "I don't know why I even brought it up!"

"So your burning question is now just silly? Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"I could, if you really wanted me to."

Chi-Chi grinned at him. "Alright, I've decided I want to know. I don't care how strange it sounds. We're both adults here. It's just important to me."

Auden was all ears.

"Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

That was a strange question, but he decided to answer truthfully. "I have."

She looked relieved when he said this and that confused him further. "Good. I just had to make sure."

"It was only once and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I'd rather have nothing further to do with it."

"Oh," she said surprised. "I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you just haven't—

"No," he said cutting across her. "Once was too many. I knew before then that I wouldn't enjoy such things."

"O-Oh."

"Does that surprise you?"

"Well, yeah," she said as if it was obvious.

"Is that a 'dealbreaker' for you?"

She looked at him thoughtfully. "No, not really, I suppose. Let's just see where this all goes. Besides, I wasn't aware I was part of some kind of deal."

Auden grinned at this recognizing a rephrasing of his own words. He was always upfront about such things. Being any other way only complicated things further from his experience. Besides, it was better to not waste time on people who would judge him poorly due to his natural leanings.

"Well," she said climbing back to her feet with some difficulty—Auden helped her as he followed in suit. "We can't stay out here forever. Never know when Vegeta or Bulma might track us down and I'm not in the mood for either of them."

"Same."

"I know before I was in a rush to leave, but do you mind if I stayed with you for the time being?"

"I wouldn't mind at all. Are you sure though? It seemed like your family really needed you."

"Oh there'll be fine. Consider this my impromptu vacation."

"And what brought this on?" he asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I just felt like it. Seeing you alive and well, is apparently quite motivating."

Auden wasn't sure he understood her reasoning, but he simply took it at face value. "Unfortunately, I didn't drive here. I suppose I can call a cab and—

"No, let's just walk. It's really nice out today."

He looked at her wearily. "It'll take hours getting home."

"You're not scared, are you? We're just taking a nice leisurely stroll. If you really feel tired, then we can get a ride, but I just thought you'd like to walk with me. We can talk about whatever."

"I'll try it out for a while, crazy woman, but I doubt I'd make it all the way."

"We shall see," she said knowingly.

The two of them started off from the Briefs' residence and soon made their way down the nearest sidewalk. Auden had never gone home on foot, but he knew exactly where to go without having to refer to a GPS which was all for the better. Soon he became far too engaged in conversation with Chi-Chi to have paid much attention to his cell phone.

---

It felt as if no time had passed at all as Chi-Chi stepped back into Auden's cozy apartment. She couldn't quite say if he felt the same. At the very least, he wasn't complaining about it. His place boasted much smaller quarters than what she was used to, but she realized that she didn't really require much space and such a place would be child's play to maintain.

After rushing back home earlier last night, she'd gotten a stern lecture from Gohan about staying out so late with no way to track her down. Midway through his self-righteous tirade, she began to chew him out over it. Thinking back, it was strange hearing the same words she'd told him when he was younger whenever he came home late turned back on her out of genuine concern. She wondered if she sounded just as annoying as he did when she'd yelled at him. The tables had turned it seemed. More and more, it felt like he was taking care of her instead of the other way around. These days, she depended on him to take care of the entire family monetarily. This meant that he had more of a say in her day-to-day life. It was becoming stifling. She felt more like a maid than anything else. Hardly anyone stopped to wonder how exactly she felt about the situation. As long as she wasn't inconvenient to anyone, all was well.

Then she'd gotten a call from Vegeta and one thing just led to another. Soon she was back in Auden's company where she felt the most alive. The singular attention that he gave her felt uncanny, but she knew she was becoming entranced by it. Returning back home seemed less and less appealing until she decided that she wouldn't. Whether Auden would take her in or not, she did not plan on coming back home anytime soon.

They both took turns taking a shower. Chi-Chi noted how immaculate his bathroom was. In fact, she could smell the very recent use of strong cleaning products in the showering area. She vowed she'd keep it the same way she found it. After she stepped in and turned on the steaming water, she stayed in there for much longer than anticipated as tears began running down her cheeks. What was she doing anyway? Why did it feel like she was running away from home? This pleasant feeling that she was allowing herself to indulge in—did she even deserve that?

She stepped out of the now wet area and quickly dried herself leaving all her questions unanswered. Then, like clockwork, she wiped everything down with bleach infused with comet cleanser she'd found in a nearby cabinet before she was thoroughly satisfied. As she left the bathroom with the towel tied around her, she wondered what she would even wear now as she carried the clothes she'd been wearing in her arms.

Chi-Chi found Auden in the living room looking down intently at his phone. He looked up when he finally noticed her nearby.

"Don't worry about your clothes," he said, "I'll wash them later on."

In fact, it was getting towards dawn and neither of them had gotten a proper night's rest. She felt as if her schedule was all over the place.

"Oh, you don't have to do all that," she said with a gracious smile. She was actually relieved and she didn't want to admit that she was glad that he'd taken time to think about such details.

"It's fine," he said waving away her concern, "I was going to do laundry anyway today."

She noticed a neatly folded gray shirt nearby that he now held up to her. With a raised eyebrow, she took it up.

"I thought you might like a change of clothes."

She realized that he was giving her what was likely his own clothes to her. Something about that made her cheeks burn a bit. When she unfolded it, she saw that it was one very large dress shirt. "I can't imagine you even wear this size."

"Well, I don't, but I can finally make use of that gift Aster got me long ago. I couldn't bear to just throw it away when she'd gone out of her way to get it for me."

"Let's see," Chi-Chi said checking the tag on the back, "She thought you wore 2XL."

"Yep. Couldn't tell her any different either," he said clearly amused. "After all, I am two times bigger than her and she thought 2XS looked a little too small. It makes perfect sense."

She snickered at this. "Kids—they really think they know everything."

"Regular geniuses," he agreed sardonically.

It wasn't quite like she would be wearing something that he'd worn many times before, but she appreciated the sentiment. The alternatives of sleeping in a bath towel or worse putting on the same soiled clothes was something she hadn't been looking forward to.

"I would hate for you to have to sleep on the couch—you can use my bed and I'll take the couch."

"I don't see how you'd fare much better than me on a couch, old man," she pointed out.

"You're my guest," he said as if it settled the discussion.

"I'd feel terrible. This is kind of spur of the moment so it's only right that I take the couch," she insisted.

"But then I'd feel terrible, if it ended up that way."

"It's alright, Auden. No need to make a big deal about it," she said as she sat down on the couch beside him.

He looked away for a moment, but then returned his gaze. "How about we just share my bed—it would be big enough for both of us."

Chi-Chi was taken aback by his boldness. Sure, it was the next logical step, but she didn't think he'd openly suggest it. "Well, I suppose it's okay…"

"No cuddling."

"Oh, yeah, of course not," Chi-Chi said with furrowed eyebrows.

"Alright, well, as long as we have an understanding," he said standing up. "If you can excuse me, I'd like to get some sleep in at some point today."

"Yeah, it has been a long day."

She watched him leave, but she didn't follow immediately. A certain giddiness had come over her. They'd be sleeping in the same bed? Was this moving along too quickly? Was she just being silly staying over like this? Was she sending the wrong message to him? It still seemed, however, that they were on the same page—whatever page that might be. She didn't exactly feel in danger around him. To be honest, it would be nice not to have to go to bed alone for a change. It also seemed as if she didn't have to worry about him invading her personal space—they'd cross that bridge if it ever became an issue. But then, did she anticipate doing this often? It was better just to take things one step at a time. Everything seemed relatively harmless now. Why destroy this serenity with worry?

After a few more minutes, Chi-Chi joined him in bed. It was king sized and more than capable of comfortably holding them. She wondered why one person would need such a huge bed. It was so soft and malleable that it hardly moved at all when she laid down on it. She slipped under the covers to gather warmth around her. She peered over at Auden who was already asleep though turned away from her.

Everything was quiet save for his long, deep breaths which became like a lullaby. She closed her eyes and after a while she fell asleep as well. However, it felt like only moments went by when she was roused by the sun. Startled by the position of the sun, she sat up quickly in bed. She only just noticed the digital clock on the nightstand as shock set in. It was a few minutes past noon—she'd never awakened so late before. She'd already wasted over half the day. Then she heard a stomach growling—she thought it was herself for a moment but realized that it was from Auden who seemed utterly unfazed by her antics.

"Auden?" she said testing how close he was to wakefulness.

He laid on his back now, head slightly turned away, but just as deeply asleep as before. She heard another distinct growling noise from him and knew that he was likely famished. It was oddly comforting and reminiscent of the time she spent with her husband only his would have been much louder and he would already be asking when the food was going to be ready.

Deciding that it wasn't worth trying to get him up right now, she climbed out of bed and made a beeline for the kitchen to see what his refrigerator looked like. There were a lot of leftovers from last time. Of course, his food stores hadn't changed much. He seemed to favor vegetables over meat and the shelves were far more sparse than what she was used to. Then again, he was only making things for himself and maybe one other person. After a few moments, she decided on something slightly fancier than usual and began on that, hoping the smell of cooking might finally wake him.

There were no signs of Aster much to her relief, though she'd been fully prepared to deal with the girl. When she was done, she set up the table and made her way back to his bedroom where he'd changed positions. Now his face was buried in the pillow and the covers wrapped more snuggly around him. He really didn't want to wake up, it seemed.

"Auden, honey, it's getting pretty late. I made some food."

She waited for his response, but it didn't come. She stepped closer to the bed planning to shake him to wakefulness despite her growing hesitation. Then she heard an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah? I heard you. Just give me a few minutes," he said, barely heard through the pillow.

Chi-Chi stood with crossed arms wondering how long he'd actually been awake. Then she heard his stomach growling again though it was muffled. "Well, it's half past noon and I'm not going to be waiting forever."

He groaned as he turned his head away from the pillow so his voice could be heard clearer. Finally, she was presented with at least one of those dark blue eyes of his. "Someone's chipper today," he noted with sleep still in his voice.

"Someone has to be else we'll never get up today apparently."

"Like I said," he began as he returned to his previous position this time with his head turned away from her, "Just give me a few."

He yawned at this and he seemed far too relaxed and perfectly comfortable in his little spot to give her any hope that he'd actually be getting up anytime soon. Auden truly wasn't accustomed to rigorous activity and yesterday was probably a departure from his usual routine, not to mention going to bed so late. Were it not for the fact that she knew he probably needed sustenance sooner rather than later, she might have just let him be. He was already falling back to sleep. Now that it was the middle of the day, she could see just how peaceful and carefree he looked—a far cry from the worrier she knew him to be.

"Auden," she said a little louder with a huff. "Please—the food's getting cold."

"Uh-hmm," he hummed in response.

She stood watching for a few more seconds finally realizing that she'd hit a brick wall with him. She could go the extra step and shake him to wakefulness, but placing her hands on him seemed somehow wrong and intrusive. She had a feeling he wouldn't like it. With a shrug, she simply left him there and began on her very light meal. To her surprise, moments after she placed the last morsel in her mouth, she was joined by Auden who by then had his phone in hand and eyeglasses back on. He hadn't changed clothes, but he seemed a great deal more alert.

"Would you look at that—he's alive," she said smiling.

"Yeah, well, my stomach wouldn't shut-up."

She looked at him knowingly. "So what was the plan? Sleep the whole day away?"

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," he said starting on the now cold plate of food.

"Oh, please, you can't be that tired. We have to do things today. Get out of the house."

He looked at her wearily. "What did you have in mind?"

"Teaching you a few new exercises. We don't have a lot of sun left today so whenever you're ready…"

"So," he began after he finished chewing, "What do you plan to wear today?"

Chi-Chi crossed her arms at this. "Don't worry—I have it all planned out."

"Something tells me that you have nothing planned out and all of this is just spur of the moment."

She opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't feel like engaging in bold-faced lies.

"That's alright. I've already thought about it since I just can't help myself."

"Proud of yourself?"

Auden grinned at her. "It won't take me long to do laundry. Then afterwards maybe we could go shopping."

"You like clothes shopping?" she said not looking forward to the prospects.

"Not particularly, but it's something to do," he said with a shrug.

"Hmm…" Chi-Chi said as she watched him finishing off his plate. "There's a lot of things you're either indifferent to or just plain don't like—what do you like outside of your precious phone?"

"Outside of my phone? Now, that's a hard one," he said amused as he stood up from the table.

He took her emptied plate along with his into the kitchen. She thought he'd start washing the dishes, but she remembered he had a dishwasher as she heard a small door being opened. But then she heard the refrigerator being opened as well along with the microwave being turned on. It seemed he wasn't satiated from what she'd made. Judging from the not so modest plate he came back to the table with, she was way off the mark with his appetite this morning.

"So…just your phone then," she remarked when he left her question hanging.

"I'm just a one-trick pony. I dedicated a good chunk of my life to software engineering and I don't take pleasure in much else. Well, perhaps there's an exception to that."

Chi-Chi looked at him questioningly, but he refused to expound. "Well, that sounds just like my husband."

"And what did he like to do?"

"Fighting," she said singularly, "Anything combat related. He was obsessed with it. He needed to find his next powerful opponent or be training intently someplace far from home. He enjoyed that more than anything else, more than me, more than his family."

He paused in his eating. "Sorry to hear that."

"Oh, well, maybe it was for the best. The world needed him on a constant basis and maybe I was just being selfish. Maybe I was just expecting too much."

She knew that he couldn't possibly be following what she was saying and she wasn't willing to explain further. It would be too long a story to indulge.

"Even with software engineering I've learned to appreciate it because I shackled myself to it early on and eventually it became my only way out of poverty. 'Enjoy' seems like a word that means something more intrinsic and inevitable. For the most part, I feel as if I'm just going through the motions with most things."

"Sometimes I feel like that too even with things I used to love doing."

"If washing dishes was one of your pastimes, I can't say I'm surprised."

"Oh, shut-up—washing dishes is pretty relaxing! The sound of water, the smell of soap—

"The nonstop scrubbing of greasy pans and the continuous struggle of trying to get every single speck of dirt despite knowing you're only human and it's an impossible task."

"Well that's because you're a perfectionist and I'm not—not that I've ever missed a speck of dirt."

"That you know of."

Chi-Chi didn't even want to begin going down that rabbit hole, but now that it was pointed out to her…

"And I'm by no means a perfectionist, but if I'm going to spend my time doing something, I might as well make sure I'm doing it right."

"I guess that's one way to look at it."

Chi-Chi watched as Auden finished off his plate in record time. For a human, that was quite impressive. She thought she might say something about it, but then thought better of it. They had missed breakfast after all. Once he was done and his place at the table cleared away, she was left to her own devices as he started on the laundry. She wanted to leave and go somewhere already, but he was taking his sweet time. He was not an outdoors person and it was becoming more and more obvious.

The idea of just walking around and exploring the city was apparently a ludicrous idea to Auden who quickly told her that it would take days to traverse the length of it just going in a straight line. As for what she wanted to do today in the way of exercise, she wanted some place outside but private. He knew of a place immediately much to her delight. At least all wasn't lost. It was finally something she could look forward to. Perhaps the prospects of clothes shopping weren't too bad either considering that Auden had no problem spending his own money on it.

Approximately half an hour passed before she could throw back on her clothes from yesterday. She had to admit that her clothes smelled magnificently fresh and warm right out of the dryer. It was a shame she was going to soil it up again soon. Chi-Chi wasted no time dragging Auden out of the house that day. They went to the nearby retail store and she quickly picked out a week's worth of clothes off the sales rack. Despite only spending less than half an hour in there, she felt that even this was too long, but she was also relieved that she now had a change of clothes as well as undergarments. Perhaps grocery shopping was in order on some later date.

It was nearing the evening time when they arrived at the nearest park. It wasn't as big and easy to lose oneself in as the one in her city, but this one had its own charm. Warm, glowing lanterns lined the sidewalks and every open area was easily identifiable with bright wooden signs. The grounds were well-kept and decorated with exotic flowers from around the world. She could smell a light perfume of flowers in the air, if she exhaled deep enough.

Chi-Chi found a secluded picnic area near the lake and decided that it would be perfect for their purposes. There was even a nice wooden bench nearby they could use if anyone got tired. She fully expected Auden to bow out pretty quickly. She stood still for a moment looking towards the slowly moving water. Auden stood nearby likely admiring the scenery as well.

"Fair weather today," he remarked.

"Yeah, we've been extremely lucky these past two days."

"Well," he said after a while, "I'm sure this is what you've been waiting for all day."

"That is an understatement. Now that we're here though, I just want to take my time."

"I'm a little nervous," he admitted.

Chi-Chi grinned at this. "Don't be. I'm not going to force you to run around the park or anything—that comes later."

"Later?"

"Yeah, when you can manage it. No need to rush into things. No need to try to impress anyone." Chi-Chi waited for a few more seconds having just come up with what they'd be doing today. "So, let's start with some stretches—that way you don't end up hurting yourself later."

Chi-Chi didn't know how bad it was going to be until she started. From the very first stretching position which required one to bend forth and touch one's feet while sitting down, Auden was a complete novice. Perhaps a child would have fared better. She found herself having to remind him to only go as far as he could manage and to not put unnecessary strain on joints and muscles to avoid injury. He couldn't go very far at all—not with the leg stretches, arm stretches, or even midsection stretches. He was a wreck afterwards, so she gave him a few minutes to recover much to her amusement. She didn't want to make him feel embarrassed, but he seemed to be taking it all in stride. At least he was trying.

"Oh, you poor soul," she said trying to not laugh.

"I'm not going to make it through the day," he said wearily. "It's fine, you can laugh." He was already stretched out on the grass with no signs of trying to sit back up again.

"Me? I would never make fun of someone else's misery."

"I'm trying to take this seriously, but it's going just as bad as I imagined it would."

"You'll get better with practice," she insisted.

"The idea of having to do this again…Nightmarish."

"Well, are you ready to continue?"

"No."

"Tough luck. We're moving on to the next set of exercises."

Auden groaned at this, but then crawled back to his feet. From here, she began teaching him the basic forms of the fighting technique that had been passed down through her family on her father's side. On their own, they were a great way to fully engage one's body in exercise and only vaguely resembled something one might use in a fight. This went far smoother than the stretches much to her relief. In fact, he seemed to take to them quicker in repeated reps. She only taught him two out of the thirteen forms.

"It's almost like this could be done on someone else," he commented when they were done with the first set of reps.

Chi-Chi grinned at this. He must have already caught on to what she might be showing him. "Perhaps, if you were quick enough and took hold of the right body parts."

She noticed that he was already well out-of-breath so she paused again for his sake, then continued on. In this way, they spent another half hour going over the same techniques until she determined that he likely couldn't take anymore. As soon as she declared that they were done, Auden was soon splayed on the ground desperately trying to catch his breath.

He'd gotten a good workout that day, but she realized that she'd have to do a great deal more to reach her own limits. Eventually, he managed to set himself up on the bench to regain some sort of dignity, but he was very clearly done that day. She wouldn't be able to make him do anything else even if she begged him, not that she would.

"Hey, Auden, wait here for me—I'm going to go jogging around the park."

He looked at her with disbelief. "Don't worry, I won't move a muscle."

She chuckled at his phrasing. "See you in a little while then."

It would have been nice to have a jogging partner, but he simply wasn't ready for all of that. Maybe he would one day. In fact, she was determined to help him reach that level of stamina. She took off quickly down the well-lit paths. Since it was quickly growing dark, she was glad he'd chosen a park that wasn't so scary at night. Comparing herself to Auden, one wouldn't even begin to suspect that she was out of shape. In reality, compared to what she could do in her youth, she was. She might be able to make two trips around the park, but she could have done much more in the past. Looking at it that way, she had a long way to go—it was depressing how far down she'd fallen. In this respect, it was nice having Auden around to boost her own confidence. Only time would tell just how committed he was. She couldn't quite tell right now. He hadn't told her that he wouldn't continue going to exercise with her, but he probably wasn't all that enthusiastic about it.

By the time she made it back to the bench a second time, she found him fully engrossed in his phone again. Gohan had shown her a cell phone before—she couldn't imagine ever being so taken by it. It seemed to amount to a lot of random symbols and graphics on a bright screen. Somehow, Auden had made an entire career out of it.

"Ready to go?" she asked as she caught her breath again.

"What's this? It's possible for even you to get tired?"

"Very funny," she said unable to laugh. "So, whatcha doing on your phone?"

"Just updating a few programs—boring stuff."

She had no idea what he was talking about and she was glad he didn't go into a detailed explanation. "Well, anyway, I know you have to have worked up an appetite, right?"

"Sure, after surviving your little torture session."

"It's not that bad."

Auden stood up from the bench. "So you say."

They made their way back to the car at a modest pace. Chi-Chi attempted to walk a little faster, but Auden didn't take the bait. They weren't too far away from home and they made it back in record time. She thought of making a grand feast for them, but Auden seemed content with reheated food.

"I'd rather not waste food," he said after she told him what she planned to do. "Force of habit, I suppose."

"There's so much leftover, I doubt we could get through it today. Might as well throw it away after tonight."

Auden looked at her puzzled. "That would be extremely wasteful."

Chi-Chi sighed exasperatedly. "I'm not even used to having leftovers."

"Don't worry, you'll survive. If you keep things below a certain temperature in the freezer, it can last a few days."

"Yeah, I know, but…"

Auden wasn't going to be throwing away food, that much she was certain of. She was a novice when it came to reheating things and she wasn't particularly fond of nuking things in the microwave. Auden didn't use that this time preferring to use the gradual heating of the oven and using the stove eyes on a low setting. Actually, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. All the meat and sauces turned out well and the vegetables were easy enough to reheat on the stove.

She expected him to take a large portion like she saw in the morning, but this time his plate was modest. One could never tell with him apparently. They ate in relative silence for a while. Only the sound of metal clinking on ceramic could be heard. The tall glass of cold-water Auden had poured them looked enticing sitting before her. For some reason, she assumed that he'd have his phone out at the table, but it seemed whenever she was around, his full attention was on her.

"Where is Aster, by the way?" she asked when a thought came to mind.

He shrugged at this. "I have no idea. She hasn't decided to let me know her whereabouts and I haven't asked."

"Doesn't that…concern you?"

"Not really. She's fully capable of making her own decisions."

"But having her coming and going without giving you a heads up has to be annoying."

"Well, I'm never doing anything out of the norm to warrant it."

"And now?"

He looked at her thoughtfully. "I should be a little worried, shouldn't I? Maybe I should let her know that you're here."

"Don't bother. She doesn't tell you anything so you shouldn't tell her anything."

He actually paused for a moment longer before simply going along with her suggestion. "We'll see what happens then."

"I'm not really all that concerned. I'm used to people not wanting me around anyway."

"Now, Chi-Chi—

"Oh, no, I didn't mean it that way," she said realizing too late how bad that sounded. "It's just…that's just how it is. It's better to just ignore it and assert yourself whether people want you to or not."

"I want you here."

That singular phrase caught her off guard and she found herself staring at him unable to find the words to respond.

"Sorry, that sounded way better in my head than out loud. Whatever you want to call this—vacation or visiting—it's been nice having you around. I really enjoy your company."

"Well, that's great since I was thinking about staying a bit longer."

"Stay as long as you like."

"Really?" she asked surprised.

"I don't make that offer lightly. The idea of having someone stay with me outside of Aster is a foreign concept to me. In fact, it always sounded like a terrible idea until now. It's different, I suppose. I'm probably not explaining myself very well."

"I don't think I fully understand, but I like the sentiment. I'm glad I haven't managed to get on your nerves yet."

"I think you'd sooner get bored of me before then."

Chi-Chi laughed at this. "Maybe I like 'boring'. Besides, you're way more interesting than you give yourself credit."

That last part was especially true. Just from being around him and observing his habits and mannerisms, she wanted to learn more about him, more than what Bulma had told her at least. While Goku had been an open book, Auden wasn't quite that. He was welcoming, to be sure, but he didn't exactly like divulging too much about himself. She could say the same for herself. For a long time, she hadn't been interested in talking about herself. She was always giving to others, shaped by everyone else's whims. Even without explicitly saying it, Auden seemed interested in her. She'd wager that he wanted to know more than he knew now about her, but he wasn't the type to pressure her into such things.

After finishing the late dinner and taking a gloriously long hot shower in his sparkling bathroom, she joined him once again in bed as if it was already routine.

"I have to work tomorrow," he said as she made herself comfortable. He was laying on his back now.

"Oh," she said, realizing that this was obviously going to be a thing that came up. She wasn't sure what to do, if that was the case.

"I was wondering if you'd like to come with me."

"What? Is that allowed?"

"At CC? Of course. People do it all the time there especially during the summer. I never paid it any mind. They encourage inviting friends and family. They even provide inhouse childcare and plenty of recreational activities."

"Wow, that's really generous. I had no idea jobs could do that."

"When you're as big and powerful as them, you can afford to splurge on those sorts of things. They're always trying to promote a more welcoming family atmosphere and most people take advantage."

"Here I was thinking you worked somewhere in a cubicle."

"CC has mastered the art of concealing their 'cubicles'. As people involve more and more of their lives with the company, the more of it they control, the more they can take the guise of someone friendly and harmless."

Chi-Chi didn't know what to say back to this as he described something quite sinister. "Um…well…"

"Anyways, if you're interested, you're free to come along with me," he ended on a lighter note.

"Sure—I'd love to see how you spend the better part of the day."

She heard as he yawned though he politely covered his mouth as he did so. "Mmm, well, I hope I don't disappoint."

"As long as you promise to join me again at the park."

He turned to his side away from her at this and she chuckled at his antics.

"Auden," she stated plainly.

"Of course," he said after a while, "I'd love to be treated to your wonderful torture session."

"It's not that bad!" she declared.

He yawned again at this. "Yeah, sure."

He fell asleep soon after. It was amazing how quickly he could do so. For her, she was still energetic from her activities at the park. After she'd caught her breath, she'd actually been ready for more, but Auden had no second wind to speak of.

"One day," she said to herself, "It won't be so bad for you, Auden. And you might even actually enjoy it. Well, maybe…"

It took her a bit, but eventually she followed in suit after finally relaxing in the pitch blackness of the room.

---

Having thoroughly prepped herself for the day, Chi-Chi found herself looking at her reflection and frowning at what stared back at her. If Goku were to come back today and find her like this, would he even recognize her? Would he be embarrassed? She'd never been sure how much stock he put into their marriage in the first place. She wondered if he'd by now figured out what marriage meant or the responsibility that it entailed. Maybe it was her fault for trying to force things to work with the first guy she ever had a crush on. She'd been young and foolish, but she remained with him despite the circumstances. And he always came back home…eventually. She was still waiting for him.

On her first perusal of the bathroom, she'd stumbled upon the medicine cabinet that was chockful of prescription drugs all with difficult to pronounce names and most of them were half full. They were all Auden's as each container had his name on it. She stared at the sheer number of bottles for longer than she'd like to admit and then closed it in a hurry. Since she'd been with him, she'd not seen him take anything. Maybe he was so discreet about it that she'd missed it or maybe he was waiting until she was asleep to take them in the middle of the night. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. No one was perfect and he'd been checking all the right boxes with her—even ones she didn't know she had.

That morning out of morbid curiosity, she checked again to make sure she hadn't been mistaken the first time. She still hadn't seen him take any pills and it continued to confuse her. She'd been too shaken to open the other cabinet that was behind the mirror, but her curiosity won out. Bright, shiny bottles of skin care products and tools greeted her eyes and she found herself inspecting each bottle, reading the descriptions and instructions. Clearly, each one was part of a set. Just from the packaging and verbiage alone, she knew it had to be high-end products and all of them claimed to have some form of de-aging properties. This was what he'd been talking about before. Apparently, everyone knew about this sort of thing except her! Her eyes eventually found the pricing which was printed in small text near the bottom—$107. Her eyes widened at this. It was far outside her budget. She had to blink back tears in her frustration.

"Are you shitting me? These prices are insane!" she exclaimed.

"Just another way society screws over the poor," came Auden's voice from behind.

She jumped in surprise having forgotten she'd left the bathroom door open. She turned to look at Auden who was leaning against the doorway with crossed arms. How long had he been there? Had he seen her snooping in his medicine cabinet as well?

"Companies know what they're doing when they overprice their products and it's disgusting," he continued despite her obvious surprise.

He didn't seem particularly upset much to her relief. "Well, it doesn't look like something I could buy on a whim," she said as she carefully put it back in its place. "I thought you said this stuff was commonplace. Here I was thinking it'd be more affordable."

"You can find a lot of inexpensive products that make the same claims, to be sure. Unfortunately, those brands cut far too many corners to make any real difference."

"Oh," Chi-Chi said sadly.

"They have a store in the mall. After work, I could take you there for a consultation and they can start you on a regimen that's suitable for your needs."

"Really? You'd do that for me?" she said in disbelief.

"Of course," he replied as if it was obvious.

"Oh my gawd. Thank you so much! I don't know what to say. I'm speechless!"

She moved to try to embrace him in all her excitement, but he put up a hand signifying that he didn't want her to step any closer.

"Please, hugs are unnecessary."

Her smile faded a little as she placed her arms at her side again.

"Do you still need the bathroom? We have a little less than half an hour to get ready and I haven't even started my usual routine."

"Yeah, I'm finished. Sorry," she said quickly as she moved passed him into the hallway. "I'm probably making you so late right now."

"No, it's alright. You gave me an excuse to sleep in a little longer." He was already in the bathroom running the sink water.

"Hey, did you want me to whip up some breakfast?" she asked.

"Only if you want to," he said glancing back at her. He had his hands on the doorknob.

"Sounds like a 'yes' to me. You can't fool me."

He only grinned in response. "Well, if you can excuse me," he said as he began closing the door.

"Oh, alright."

Chi-Chi wasn't used to being rushed out of the bathroom. She usually woke up earlier than anyone else or in the case of her living situation with her family now, she had her own bathroom. Being in such confined quarters was definitely something new to her especially in an urban setting.

Since she was already dressed, she made her way to the kitchen which was now becoming much easier to navigate around, and quickly pan-fried some food items for breakfast. Something told her that going to work on an empty stomach was a recipe for disaster and she had to be there the whole time—at least that's what she signed up for. Though it was somewhat exciting, she wondered once again what she was getting herself into. Would she even have anything to do while there? Would it be awkward for her? Would she simply just make a fool of herself being completely out of her element? As much as she wanted her son to have a respectable job, she'd never actually worked at one before. Would her own mannerisms give her away? She sighed to herself. This day might end up being a complete disaster.

Auden joined her at the table a few minutes later with phone predictably in hand. Did he also take that thing into the bathroom with him because he couldn't bear being away from it for more than a few minutes? Still, he gave her his full attention at the table despite her misgivings. They couldn't sit for long before they were rushing off to work. They wouldn't be late, he reassured her. He always set his time to be there twenty minutes before everyone else.

"What about my clothes? Do you think it'll pass for business attire?" she asked while sitting in the car on the passenger's side.

He seemed to always wear business casual and today he looked just as clean-cut as usual. She could smell a subtle fresh woody scent from him. It suited him somehow. This along with his eyeglasses made him appear quite professional and, in her opinion, beside him she looked like a bumbling country girl wearing outdated fashion.

"I don't think it matters for you—you're a guest after all and not actually working there. Though today you look especially enchanting; like a princess from a faraway land."

"I would be a very old princess," Chi-Chi said looking away though her cheeks were burning profusely. "It's just a dress I picked out because it was cheaper than the others."

"It suits you very well," he insisted.

It was a style of dress that was more her speed similar to the kind she wore when Gohan was much younger—hardly anything to impress someone else. In fact, she couldn't remember anyone ever complimenting her for all the years she wore it. "Well," she began with a sigh, "Thank you." Her princess hood, at this point, was moot and wasn't worth bringing up. It had been a long time since she'd even felt like a princess. An abandoned wife whose existence revolved around whether she cooked for the day or not felt like a more apt description. Still, it was nice that he seemed to think that she was somehow fascinating. It gave her a warm feeling that she hadn't experienced in some time.

Chi-Chi walked side by side with Auden into his workplace—it was a substantial building with plenty of floors, yet Auden described it as a satellite location. Once in the right area, Auden introduced her to the people he worked with on a daily basis. She noticed immediately that most of them were women and they all seemed hyper-interested in her relationship to Auden. Chi-Chi was sure he repeated the fact that they were friends a hundred times in the span of three minutes. She started to expect to feel some animosity or jealousy—instead, they all seemed to admire her and place her on a pedestal. It felt a little uncanny. She hadn't been prepared for that at all.

"So are you two really just friends?" the red head woman closest to her asked. She had a noticeable smoothness to her voice. In fact, she looked quite beautiful, with long wavy hair, very plump breasts, and a youthful air, all of which made Chi-Chi feel a little inadequate. Auden hadn't mentioned that he was working with models for most of the day.

Auden had just been pulled away to someone who urgently needed his help and this woman had stopped her before she could retreat back to his side again.

"O-Oh, yeah, of course. He said it right before."

The woman flashed her a brilliant smile. "No need to be coy, honey. None of us have any hard feelings."

"Us? What do you mean?" Chi-Chi asked though she suspected she knew what she was talking about.

The woman looked at her knowingly, "You're the first women who's not Aster he's ever brought along with him to work—that's enough evidence for me. You seem like a nice lady, more his speed."

"Well, thank you, but I think you have it all wrong—

"If anyone deserves to fall in love, to have some sort of real companionship with someone, it's our precious little Audi."

"Companionship? Listen, we've only just met a few days ago—

"And that's all it takes, my dear. Please, don't take him for granted or you will be hearing from me."

Chi-Chi's eyebrows furrowed at this. Was that a threat?

"My name's Rose, by the way. I know he already introduced us, but it's easy to forget names the first go around."

"Well, Rose, I don't take kindly to intimidation. Me and Auden are simply friends and since I happened to be in the area, he asked me to come along with him. That's all."

"Of course," she said with a smile. "Even if that is the case, the same rules still apply. We all adore and look after him—only as much as he allows, which isn't much, but we do our best."

"So you ladies are all just one big family, huh? How come he's never mentioned anything about you or anyone he works with before, if everyone's so caring?"

"Because he's a master at pushing people away and keeping them at armlength, honey," she answered unperturbed. "It's a terrible habit of his, but anyone can see that he must have gone through a lot back then—you can't fault him for that. We've all been worried about him for some time now and none of us have been able to help. This is the happiest I've ever seen him and I'm certain you're the reason for that."

Why did it suddenly feel like a heavy burden was being placed on her shoulders? She knew that Auden wasn't quite right based on what Bulma had told her had happened in her lab, but were things this bad that people he worked with on a daily basis could tell something was wrong just by looking?

"I'm just being a good friend," she said, unwilling to engage much further.

"Well, whatever you want to call it. I'm glad that you are."

Chi-Chi looked over to where Auden was, already planning her escape from the woman. "It's been nice meeting you. Please excuse me," she said quickly.

She didn't even wait to hear a reply before she was making her way across the room, but she could feel eyes on her back. When she looked back, however, everyone seemed innocently engrossed in their bright screens on the tabletop. Did Auden know how much his coworkers adored him? She'd even go further and say that they worshipped him. She'd have to have a talk with Auden about all of this. At the very least, he should be made aware.

She stayed near him for the time being though she was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable noticing that anytime anyone looked up, they paused their gaze at her and then onto Auden. It didn't take long for every other woman to get a good look at her. They were all very friendly, but she felt like she was in one of Gohan's petri dishes. Auden stopped at some point to speak to her alone when they were standing a little ways from everyone else.

"If you like, you can visit the recreational area so you don't have to sit through all this boring stuff. They dedicated the entire fifth floor for entertainment and rec purposes."

That sounded like a great idea at the moment. Anyplace but here sounded great. "Thank you. I'll just leave you to your fun."

He laughed softly at this—it was a quiet environment and he probably didn't want to disturb anyone. "I'll see you in a while then. The elevator is just down the hall once you step out of here."

Chi-Chi beat a hasty retreat into the hallway and eventually onto the elevator. Though she wasn't used to those things, she quickly understood that pressing the number 5 would probably bring her to her destination. Once the elevator doors slipped open, she was presented with an entirely different atmosphere—there was certainly more color and the sound of whirring machines was nowhere to be found. It was quiet where she was as she stepped down the hall in wonder. Glass walls partitioned out the many rooms they had. She heard more noise much further down, but the magnificently large pool area caught her eye. Thankfully, no one was there. It seemed like a great place to relax.

The water was sparkling blue and the pool featured various levels of depth along with a diving board and even an impressive slide. There was an information booth as well with someone there likely monitoring the room and where one could borrow various equipment and items. Two other women were spread out further in the room sitting atop very tall chairs. Chi-Chi gave the woman at the booth a brief wave of acknowledgment before deciding to sit on the edge of the deepest end on the other side of the massive room. She took off her shoes and rolled up her dress a bit so that she could dip her toes in—the water was deliciously cool. She'd expected it to be ice cold, but she had a feeling that this was temperature controlled. This was as close to outside one could feel inside of a corporate building.

Eventually, she laid back onto the cement, kicking up the water every so often, and her eyes gazed up at the ceiling that seemed far, far away. A mural had been painted of a bright sunny sky with seagulls flapping away and clouds lazing about. It was so beautiful, she wondered how anyone could manage to paint something so realistic. If she let her mind wander, she could imagine actually being outside with the sun beating on her skin and the constant symphony of noises all around.

"Oh, my, another brave soul," came an older woman's voice from nearby.

Chi-Chi was quickly broken out of her daydream. She sat up so she could see the woman a little better. "Hi, I hope I'm not disturbing you." This seemed extremely unlikely considering how much space they had. She wondered why the woman had gone out of her way to come over and speak. She wore her graying brunette hair in a tiny bun and donned a full-coverage swimming suit—her legs looked quite toned.

"So you're Chi-Chi, right?"

Chi-Chi looked at her in confusion. "Yes—how did you know?"

"News travels lightning fast around here, doubly so if it's about Mr. Sexy over there in data management. Plus, we're pretty close-knit and you're definitely a new face."

"Really fast, apparently. I've barely been here an hour."

The woman chuckled heartily at this. "My name's Clair, by the way. I'm from R&D."

"Hello then, Clair."

Much to Chi-Chi's annoyance, Clair sat right next to her clearly not planning to leave her in peace. "Now that I have you all to myself, I suppose I can extract all the juicy details from you."

"Juicy details?" Chi-Chi parroted with shock. "I think you ladies are blowing this all out of proportion. If I had known it was going to be like this—"

"No worries, girl, we don't bite. It's just some harmless fun we're having. Now, I know you have eyes. The fact that someone that delectable is still somehow a bachelor in this late stage of life had all of us coming up with all these crazy ideas. He's super nice all the time, takes care of himself, and he's pretty much the best director anyone could ask for. When he's around, everything moves along smoothly. He values your hard work, he actually knows what he's doing, and he makes sure everyone keeps getting generous raises every year—and that's a huge deal because our managers are liable to forget putting it into Payroll."

"Wow," Chi-Chi said impressed, "That's high-praise from someone from a completely different department."

"He oversees everyone here, but his office is in Data Management."

Chi-Chi could scarcely wrap her mind around how much responsibility that entailed. He seemed to take it in stride. Since she'd been visiting, he hardly brought up work at all. Maybe it was because like Clair said, everything was moving so smoothly. "So," she began after a moment, "What kind of silly ideas have you come up with about him? I'll let you know if you're hot or cold or if I have no clue. You probably know him better than I do though."

"Oh, I doubt it. As the only woman who's capable of making him laugh—yes, Rose told us about your little exchange with him a little while ago—you have way more insight."

"I should probably just stop being shocked at how much people already know around here. This is apparently a hot bed of gossipers."

Clair laughed at this. "No, just extremely bored middle-aged women. Anyways, one of the theories is that he's gay."

Chi-Chi shook her head at this. "I don't think so, but I can't say for certain."

"Keeping it close to the chest—I completely understand," she said with a knowing look. "Another theory that's a bit more tragic: he married the love of his life long ago and she passed away too soon which is why he wears a black ring on his right hand instead of his left. He's still mourning her loss."

"Ah, well, that's an involved narrative. I have no idea. He does have a daughter, so maybe?"

"That's what we thought. It sounds more likely, right? Okay, so another one which is what I like to believe is that he's extremely particular about women and since he knows he can date any woman he wants, he takes his sweet time. And he's still saving himself for that one special person."

"Hmmm…Maybe, but don't you think it sounds a little farfetched?"

"I've heard of stranger things. Another one is that CC has his soul locked up somewhere and he's been forced to work for them so that he can win it back—it explains the lack of emotion and his dedication to the job," she said somehow keeping a straight face.

"What?"

"Inside joke," she said with a laugh. "But CC loves trying to control your whole life and somebody got carried away with that one. Any truth to it?"

"I highly doubt it. He hasn't mentioned anything about his lack of a soul."

"Then a younger colleague came up with the idea that he's probably just asexual which, again, explains the black ring but also the fact that he wears it on his middle finger. Actually, that one's been picking up a lot of steam lately…"

"Well," Chi-Chi began slowly. "Actually, that's quite warm." The fact that Pan was so fascinated with him in the first place was clue enough for her, but at some point she had brought up the fact that he was of this persuasion at the dinner table after Videl peppered her with questions. She still barely knew what that meant for Pan let alone Auden.

"Oooh," Clair said nodding slowly.

"But I don't know for sure," Chi-Chi added.

"Oh, you cruel lady, leaving me in the dark! I'll admit though that it'd knock the wind out of my sails, if that was even remotely true. It would be such a shame." Clair stood up after this. "While I still have some free time, I'd like to swim a few laps. Hope I'll see you more often."

Chi-Chi couldn't say that she shared her sentiment and couldn't figure out what to say before the woman was jumping off the edge and splashing into the water. The woman was nothing if not graceful as she quickly began gliding through the water. She was practically a fish. Chi-Chi had to admit that it was fascinating to watch her cut through the water so easily.

Sometime later—Chi-Chi wasn't keeping up with the time—Auden found her there in the pool area. He certainly seemed out of place in such a relaxing setting. Chi-Chi could already see Clair peeping her head out of the water in the distance. If she wasn't mistaken, Clair was giving her a thumbs up much to her embarrassment.

"I thought you might like to join me for lunch," he said to when he was in earshot.

The mention of food certainly perked her up. She had no idea what she wanted, but she knew lunch sounded perfect right now. "Yeah," she said climbing out of the pool, "I'm practically starving."

"Sorry, I got a little busy—it is a bit late for lunch, but they're still serving it now."

"Oh, they serve lunch here? I really shouldn't be surprised with a recreational area like this."

"It's pretty good too, though carryout is not allowed."

"Huh, I wonder why?" she said trying to dry her feet by wiggling each leg.

"You know," he began with a slightly darker tone, "to further entice people to never leave the premises. Let me get you a towel."

He left her a bit out of sorts with that answer, but she did need a towel at the moment. Chi-Chi was grateful when he came back with one from the booth. At least she didn't have to walk around on the cold floor with wet feet. She dried herself soon after and quickly put back on her footwear.

"What was all that before?" she asked referring to his last comment, "Everyone's just a little crazy around, aren't they?"

"Maybe," he said not disputing her, "In reality, we all know how CC slowly tries to control every aspect of your life, sinister or not. That way they can get higher and higher productivity out of each employee."

Chi-Chi nearly choked at this. "So you've sold your soul to the company?" she said playing along, hoping to catch him off guard.

"Oh that? They have it somewhere under lock and key and they haven't seen fit to return it—maybe one day though."

She wasn't sure if she should be taking that seriously. "You're feeding into the gossip, aren't you?"

"What was that?" he said innocently.

"Really, Auden?" she said loudly, barely able to keep a straight face.

"C'mon, already—I'm starving too," he said as they both began making their way out of the room.

"I can't believe you, Auden—so you know about all the stuff people have been saying about you?" she said once they were in the hall and going towards the elevator.

"I don't really pay attention on most days, but I found that one to be particularly amusing. Besides, it isn't too far from the truth."

Chi-Chi looked at him thoughtfully, but decided not to go down that road. "Isn't it weird though—with so many women around here and then everybody talking about you?" They were waiting for the elevator to come to their floor.

"I think it's great so many women have decided to pursue careers in engineering—it wasn't always like that. Bulma has inspired and continues to inspire many young women to do things that they actually like to do despite the stigma."

"That's…not what I was talking about and you know it." The elevator door opened as if on cue.

"I can't control what people decide to talk about on their free time," he said as he walked in the elevator with Chi-Chi. "I hope I've created a culture in which people aren't afraid to speak their minds and don't feel the need to walk on eggshells. I hope everyone views each other as their equal and that we are all here to fulfill a role—not to belittle or think anyone's more valuable than the next."

"I think that's an honorable philosophy to have."

"Unfortunately, it's not always so easy to maintain, especially working in a company that has very strict hierarchy, massive differences in pay, and different rules of engagement to someone depending on their position. At least in this building, we've done away with all the tedious formality. That's not the case elsewhere."

"I was kind of wondering about that. I mean, I'm not all that familiar with business environments, but this is definitely different from what I thought."

"How has it been?"

"Interesting. Actually, I guess not that bad. Everyone's been so welcoming."

"Good. That's what I like to hear."

Here, completely in his element, Auden was a great deal more at ease. It was clear that everyone respected him, and it wasn't until now that she realized that he actually took pride in his work and the people who worked alongside him. She found she liked this side of him along with all the others she'd witnessed thus far.

Auden guided her to the café that was on the floor above them and she was presented with a ton of options for lunch.

"This all looks very expensive and luxurious—'pretty good' is a very modest way of describing all this."

He grinned a little at this. "One gets used to it. Since all employees pay into this, you don't have to worry about paying anything upfront. We're allowed quite a few guests as well."

"Wow—that sounds incredible. You can get whatever you want and however much you want without paying anything?"

"Someone always has to pay, but I understand what you mean. You have free reign."

Chi-Chi was getting excited just looking around. She already had her eye on the sushi bar—definitely something that would cost an arm and a leg in her city.

"Now…if only people could apply this same concept to healthcare. Isn't it ironic how a completely authoritarian private company like CC can figure out the merits of socializing facets of their business before the government can?"

"Auden, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm going to get me some sushi right now."

"I think I'll have the same," he said, "It's been a while."

Generally, she was modest about which sort of sushi she partook in. Today she decided to order the fancier variety. There was a live chef there making it fresh—she was beginning to feel like a spoiled little princess just ordering whatever she wanted without worrying about the cost. Auden, apparently, had a taste for eel as he ordered all the varieties that included it in some way. Chi-Chi was in a bright mood once they chose a table near the window secluded somewhat from others and she was able to finally dig in.

"Geez, if I worked in a place like this, I'd never want to leave. I wonder why Gohan insisted on working from home."

"Maybe CC already has it's claws in you."

"Oh, stop," she said dismissively.

"I think Gohan has the right idea. Working from home definitely gives you a lot more flexibility. If you're disciplined enough, it's a perfect fit for most people."

"He's definitely disciplined," Chi-Chi said proudly. "He always gets up bright and early to go to his lab downstairs."

"It sounds like he really enjoys his work."

"I'd say so. I'd never thought I'd see the day the way everyone kept dragging him off to all those dangerous battles! But my Gohan isn't nearly into fighting as much as his father was."

"Hm," Auden said thoughtfully.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not entirely, but I'm starting to see a theme."

"Be glad you don't really understand. It's not a world you want to involve yourself."

"Well, now you have me curious."

"I was hoping the opposite."

Chi-Chi wasn't looking at Auden as she dipped her piece of sushi into the soy sauce, but she felt his gaze on him. She pretended not to notice hoping he might drop the subject and start with another.

"Somehow Vegeta is involved, I bet."

"You have no idea. That delinquent is the epicenter of danger."

Auden left her last words hanging for a while as he finally started on his food. "In that case, perhaps I should give him a wide berth."

"That would be the sensible thing," Chi-Chi replied.

"Though he was quite helpful to me in the end."

"Don't let him fool you," she almost spat but managed to keep her tone respectful.

"He also seems very knowledgeable about this 'ki'."

"Not humans and ki," she clarified, "But I'm sure he has a lot of personal experience."

"So he's not human," Auden stated matter-of-factly.

Chi-Chi almost choked on the morsel in her mouth. She had to take down a few sips of water to clear her throat. In the meantime, Auden was already looking at her full of concern.

"Are you—

"No, I'm fine," she asked before he finished his obvious question. "I'm fine. I just had something stuck in my throat. Anyway, I wouldn't bother trying to figure any of this out—it's not worth it. I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to get involved with Vegeta. Let's just move on already."

"Alright," he said backing off much to her relief. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset!" She realized that she'd raised her voice a bit too much as she noticed eyes on her from the occupants. "I'm not upset," she said calmer. "Why don't you…tell me about what you've been doing all day while I was at the pool."

"Well, a number of things," he began slowly, "But I hardly think you'd be all that interested in hearing about it."

She looked at him with pursed lips, "I asked, didn't I?"

"You did," he agreed simply.

Then from there he went into painful detail about his day and she immediately regretted it. She'd know better next time—never under any circumstances ask him for details about his work. It was all flying right over her head as she smiled and nodded along. Did he know that she wasn't following in the slightest? He gave no indication that he did, but surely he must've known. Even when he would pause and ask if she understood or asked if she agreed, she'd smile and nod. Chi-Chi was glad when their meal came to a close so that she could escape the techy, business jargon. He took her dishes as he usually did and put them in the front along with the other emptied plates. He seemed quite amused on his return.

"What?" she asked confused at his expression.

"I don't know what to make of you sometimes."

Chi-Chi could only give him a gentle smile as she wasn't willing to admit the obvious.

"Will you be returning with me or exploring a bit more?" he asked further.

"I'll think I'll do more exploring. If I've learned anything in the past few minutes, it's that I probably wouldn't get much from shadowing you all day."

"Well then, I'll see you in a while. I'll try not go overtime."

"You better not," she said playfully.

Truthfully, she wanted to leave already, but she was still curious about the recreational area since she hadn't actually looked everywhere. They parted ways and Chi-Chi found herself on the fifth floor on her own. The pool area was nice, but what else was there to offer? Her eyes widened at the plethora of activities beyond—ice skating, roller skating, bowling, a movie theater, a well-equipped gym which she was eyeing for some time before continuing. She found a huge videogaming lounge—a place in which Goten would have immediately fell in love. There were more specialty eateries and juice bars as well as more gaming areas that included pool and card games. That's where she'd been hearing the noise before. There was even putt-putt and tennis. Just how much could CC pack onto one floor? She wasn't really wearing the right clothes for many of these things, but she felt she had enough flexibility in her dress to a do a bit of roller skating.

It would be nice to get in some exercise before having to do it with Auden later. Other people were out there too, but she purposefully stayed out of their way so that she could skate in peace. It had been a long time since she'd done this. For the first few minutes, she was focusing on regaining her balance and technique. Once she was able to manage it, she started skating in full force with long strides. She enjoyed how fast she was flying through the air and the feeling of her feet gliding beneath her. It was so enchanting, she wound up skating about the rink for much longer than anticipated. She stopped, only when her breath gave out and she was in danger of falling flat on her face in exhaustion. She sat in the lounge outside the room for some time waiting for her racing heart to calm. She knew she would be feeling that in the morning. It would be a familiar pain that she welcomed.

"You were magnificent out there," a woman's voice interrupted the silence around her.

Chi-Chi had been sitting back on the long booth, but when she looked up she beheld a tall, stunning blond woman with sparkling blue eyes. She couldn't help but stare at her. The woman smiled and then laughed.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, but I've been dying to speak to you. I'm Seria."

Chi-Chi scolded at herself for being so awkward and finally responded. "Thank you, first of all. I had no idea I had audience. I'm really rusty, by the way, and the other girls out there were way more skillful."

"You're so modest! You were so fast and graceful out there, I could hardly see you at times. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you."

That such a ridiculously ravishing woman was giving her such glowing reviews was a little off putting. She simply couldn't believe that Auden managed to work with such smart, good-looking women who apparently adored him and not have even been mildly interested. What in the world did Auden see in her because she was totally missing it. The more she thought about it, the more it just didn't make any kind of sense.

"I guess you have. Everyone seems to already know me."

"News travels fast," she explained as she sat down beside Chi-Chi. "Only a truly special woman could draw Director Tyga's attention. How must it feel like to have his singular attention?"

"Um, well, I wouldn't know—we're just friends." She was already starting to repeat herself.

"He probably needs that more than anything. Someone to talk to, someone to confide in. Oh, I would love to be in your shoes as he tells you all his deep, dark secrets."

"I hope he doesn't have too many of those. I don't know if I'd be ready for that."

"A strong woman like you? I bet you can handle far more than you give yourself credit. I can tell."

To hear such confident praise from a stranger was definitely new for her. She was hoping she'd wake up from this ego-driven fantasy of hers. Otherwise, there was no way to explain everyone's behavior around her. Auden was apparently some kind of celebrity here. She got the sense that everyone loved him and everyone was looking out for him. How could someone so popular seem so lonely? But perhaps she already had an answer to that in a sense. Considering how much she knew her family loved her and depended on her continued presence, she'd been feeling extremely lonely for a long time.

"Thank you for the vote of confidence."

"We can all use a little pep talk every once in a while," she said with a smile. "Are you liking the recreational area?"

"It's been incredible. I feel like CC thought of everything when it came to this. The rooms are huge and they're still selling food."

"Only healthy options though, but I don't mind. I love getting the smoothie around here. When I first came here, I felt like a little girl in a candy store and had to try every single thing in one day. Did you know they have archery back there too in the same place as the open gym?"

"No," Chi-Chi said amazed.

"It's great for toning and building muscle in your arms. I do it every time I'm here."

"That sounds like an interesting pastime. I don't know if I'd try it today though."

"Oh yeah, no—it's getting a little late. I was just there and I'm just winding down until it's time to go."

"Do you work here?" Chi-Chi asked.

"Actually, no, I'm just the wife of one of the managers who work here. I come out here all the time. If you really want to get immersed in the culture, you should try joining in some card games. People are so friendly around here and I'm sure it'll be doubly so for you."

"Because I'm associated with Auden?"

"Yep," she said with a smile. "I haven't actually met him before, but I hear enough about him on a daily basis that I feel like I've known him forever."

"Do you have any idea why he's so popular?"

"That's a good question," Seria said thoughtfully. "I'm guessing it's because he's so nice! My husband told me that it's just not the norm at CC. Everyone is usually so focused on meeting certain goals and trying to move up through the ranks, that it's generally more cutthroat. While they promote a family atmosphere, it was more of like a veneer to make the company seem like it was caring about the employees. I've been here for a long time and it has definitely changed. Mark is so much less stressed. No one's trying to sabotage each other anymore. I think it's because Auden had an entirely different philosophy about work that he wasn't afraid of implementing. The way he worked with people and eventually became the director—it was really inspiring. You can do all that and not screw over other people. His department started doing so much better than the others and so his way of thinking became infectious. From what I could tell, Auden always made sure that everyone was reaping the rewards of their success. They say, every time he gets a bonus of any kind, he splits it among everyone else—and it still turns out being a substantial amount because my husband was able to buy a house outright. We'd been waiting to pay off a few bills first before starting a family and just like that we were able to do it."

"I think I understand a little better," Chi-Chi said, "He's materially improved everyone's lives and it's something outside the norm. I can see why everyone would like a person like that."

"Yeah, exactly. We all know that his goal is to make sure everyone is well taken care of. It does help that he's also pretty cute," she finished with a smile.

Chi-Chi couldn't help but grudgingly smile at this. "As I've been reminded a few times today."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say though. It all comes secondary to the thing that everyone actually likes about him. His selflessness is what shines through the most in my opinion that is what truly makes him beautiful." Seria stood up after this. "Well, hope to see you around again sometime. Maybe we could do some archery. I'm going to go meet Mark in his office."

Seria waved goodbye before taking off. The other people in the lounging area was starting to do the same. Though they didn't all come over to introduce themselves—thank God—they did make sure to say their farewells as they left a few at a time. It was winding down now. She wondered when the place officially closed and how far overtime they'd allow people to stay.

After hearing from Seria, it confirmed what Chi-Chi had been suspecting all along about Auden's popularity. She knew it could not have been his winning personality—not that she minded his personality, but she wouldn't describe it as particularly congenial, not any more so than the next person. In fact, she would say that he was actually a bit awkward and somewhat subversive. He was someone who was slightly off-kilter from everyone else and didn't do too much to adjust or try to hide it.

Chi-Chi finally made her way to Auden. While it had been a long day for her, she imagined it must have felt even longer for him as he'd actually been working the whole time. This was the sort of lifestyle that she'd been pushing her son towards, but she could see why someone might be averse to it. She could never see Goku committing himself to such a regimen and she was glad that Gohan had found a way around it somewhat.

"You ready?" Chi-Chi asked as he came walking towards her.

She'd waited until it seemed like he was done discussing something with Rose before making herself known.

"Hold on a moment. I promise I won't be long."

Chi-Chi waited with crossed arms as he made his way into his personal office likely grabbing some of his effects before emerging once again. Finally. She wanted to leave as soon as possible. In the back of her mind, she'd been thinking about the facial consultation that Auden had mentioned that morning.

"Okay," he said when was within earshot.

She started off immediately out of the building and waited until she was outside to breath a sigh of relief. He wore an amused expression as he observed her.

"Did you get bored?" he asked.

"Not really, I'm just excited to be outside again. It's actually been quite enlightening today."

"I'm glad," he said with a brief nod. "I also took the liberty of making an appointment with the skincare company. We have a few minutes to get there now."

"Well then we better get a move on."

"Agreed."

Soon they were off to the local mall which she'd been to a few times with Bulma. She remembered quite a few trips of window-shopping, looking at things that she couldn't possibly afford on a whim. Every once in a while, when she saved a bit of money, she'd splurge on herself. That felt like another lifetime ago though. These days, she hardly ever ventured out the house. She was in the process of turning a new leaf with Auden's help.

They had to hustle to get to the place as it took time to find an open parking space in the evening and they used an entrance that was far away from their destination. Once there, however, she had to take a deep breath to compose herself. Auden stood nearby waiting patiently. Then she finally stepped in.

"I'll wait for you in the front," Auden told her.

There was a nearly full waiting area in the front, but she'd be admitted in quickly thanks to the set appointment. Apparently, most people didn't bother. She walked up to the front and stated her name. The front desk receptionist smiled in recognition stating that she was just in time. Another woman escorted her further in. The office itself had a very sleek and futuristic aesthetic. Doors slid open quickly and quietly as she walked through and there was a subtle smell of roses in the air.

A very personable lady met her in the room and she looked flawless. She introduced herself and claimed that she was over seventy years old.

"What!?" Chi-Chi exclaimed unable to hide her surprise.

"That's right and I stand by our products. Now let's see if we can help you reach your goals."

They discussed not only the target look she was going for, but other pertinent information like any potential allergens she had or preference as to what sort of application she preferred—lotions, oils, serums, toners, or a combination. Soon after a quick checkup with a device that could pinpoint her key issues, a targeted regimen was put together in the blink of an eye. Chi-Chi could tell that this was high-end because there was no mention of price the entire time and she didn't make the mistake of bringing it up. If she had to make an estimate, it was probably costing well over a thousand dollars. Auden was spoiling her into oblivion and she didn't mind it at all.

"See? Now that was easy, wasn't it?" the woman said with a smile revealing her perfect row of teeth. "Remember, it takes a couple months of consistent application to start seeing the changes, but trust us, you won't regret it once the magic starts happening. Now, we've gone ahead and given you a year's supply—does that sound reasonable?"

"Oh, um, yea-yes, that's fine," Chi-Chi said. Auden hadn't exactly told her that he was on some kind of budget. But a year's supply? She didn't even want to think of the price tag on that.

"And if you like the results, you can always sign up for an annual subscription—most people end up doing that. We're here for you, Chi-Chi, and you can come in as many times as you want free of charge. We'll set you up for a few more appointments to make sure there aren't any complications or any need to make a few changes with the regimen. Okay?"

"Alright," Chi-Chi said, "I can't wait to get started!"

The woman smiled brightly. "Me too. I can't wait to see how you've come along in the coming weeks. Now, do you have any questions for me?"

"I can't think of any right now, but I'll be sure to call if I do."

"Please do! If you can't catch us on our regular business hours, we also have 24-hr customer service on-line and they're very knowledgeable about our products. We've been given a five-star rating on our customer service for over a decade."

"Well, that's good to know," Chi-Chi said nearly overwhelmed now with all the information she was getting.

"We're setting up your personalized box right now as we speak so please follow me out to the front."

She felt just like a pampered princess as she followed the woman back out to the front. She noticed the waiting room wasn't nearly as crowded as before. They were nothing if not efficient. Auden was at the front desk and she almost missed the moment he slid a card—likely his credit card—back into his wallet. Had he already paid for it? He only noticed her a few moments after and he seemed quite pleased to see her again. Chi-Chi found that she wanted to run over and hug him, but she knew almost for certain that he wouldn't like it. Instead, she bounded towards him with more than a little pep.

"You already seem like a new woman," Auden said with the beginnings of a smile.

"Not yet—but give it some time."

The receptionist soon brought out a very cute looking turquois bag holding the box containing everything she'd need. Just holding it in her hands was making her feel giddy. She wanted to go home right in this instant to try it on, but they had other pressing matters to get to—namely their appointment with the park. Chi-Chi thanked the lady before exiting with Auden. Looking at how she hadn't heard anything about payment—Auden must have discretely paid it upfront. It was ridiculously generous of him and once again she wondered what she was getting into spending so much time with him. She couldn't deny that she was in an impossibly good mood though.

Just so her very premium purchase could remain in good condition, Auden brought her back to his place so that she could store it inside. Then it was off for the park. They arrived a little earlier than yesterday. The sun was still out and beginning to set. The relatively hot day was just beginning to cool down which was perfect for their purposes.

"Well, here we are again," Chi-Chi said brightly.

"Here we are," he repeated in a dreary tone.

"I bet it'll be a little easier today. Now let's get started!"

Despite his misgivings, he was actually quite responsive to her commands. They started with stretching which worked out just as well as yesterday only this time, she couldn't stop herself from giggling at his efforts. She was afraid that he'd be discouraged by this, but he seemed equally as amused. She wasn't sure if he noticed, but she put in a bit more stretches this time for his sake. He obviously needed a lot of help in that department. As before, once they moved on to the basic techniques again, it was smooth sailing. She tested his knowledge on the last session, and he'd retained everything down to the most minute details. Clearly, he'd been paying attention. They did a few more repetitions on the first two techniques to further imprint them into his memory and finally she taught him two more techniques that were more involved.

Here she took her time slowly showing him the proper form. It reminded her of the time she'd taught Goten all those years before only now was a little better because Auden was less obnoxious and more attentive. She didn't have to repeat herself over and over. Dare she say, it was easier than it had been before. Eventually, she was having him repeat the formations and she could practically see the wheels in his mind turning. At first slow, she increased the pace gradually. Then without warning, she told him to perform the first two techniques which he performed without even blinking an eye. It was a beautiful thing to see. She couldn't wait to see just how long that sort of prowess would last as she taught him more and more techniques. She joined in as well—not to fight against him, of course to make the same movements. She struck out with far more force than Auden out of habit. Clearly, he wasn't picturing an opponent as she was.

He lasted about as long as last time. She left him to catch breath as she commenced on her jogging. She was really getting in a lot of exercise today. While she still didn't think she was doing enough, it was much more than what she'd been doing before. She pushed herself to do a few more laps before tapping out. In fact, she might have pushed herself a little too hard as she struggled a bit to get back to where she'd left Auden.

She'd expected him to be on his phone, but he was instead dozing off. Perhaps a full day's work was finally taking its toll. She felt a little bad disturbing one who looked so peaceful, but it had to be done if they were going to get home in a timely manner. Besides, she was already itching to start dinner. It wasn't too difficult to wake him much to her relief and very soon after they were on their way home.

Chi-Chi found herself later on, stirring the pot of stew she'd decided on making in the spur of the moment, humming as she did so. Every once in a while, she'd peek her head out the kitchen to see if Auden was still nearby. The dining room was right outside the kitchen and one had to only take a couple steps to be at the table. He happened to be sitting at the dining room table. They'd been speaking before, but once she became fully engrossed in her cooking, she likely left him hanging on whatever topic they'd manage to get on—she'd already forgotten. He'd taken out his phone at some point, so it wasn't likely he'd be interrupting her anytime soon. She noticed something a little off and took another peek to make sure she'd seen right. He wasn't wearing his eyeglasses as usual. Idly, he tapped the temple tips against his mouth as he squinted at the glowing screen of his phone which was now quite close to his face. It looked unnecessarily difficult, if not outright harmful to his already failing eyesight.

"Auden!" she said loudly, startling him in the process.

He looked at her questioningly.

"Use your glasses already—it's painful just watching you."

"Oh," he said realizing what she was upset about. "I would, but it's really not helping anymore. This is easier."

"What? You mean you have the wrong prescription?" she asked concerned.

"I guess," he said as if he wasn't quite sure of that fact.

"Wait, you've just been using the wrong prescription and you've been driving? That's dangerous!"

"No, this just happened today very gradually now that I think about it. I thought I was just imagining things, but I've had this very subtle headache all day and I'm pretty sure now it's because of these glasses and that I've been straining to see through them. Now everything's blurrier when I put them on."

"Are you going blind then?" Chi-Chi said panicking, "Maybe I should add more carrots into the stew or something."

"I hope not. I probably just need a new prescription. No worries."

"No worries! You could be going blind and no one's supposed to make a big deal about it?"

"It's not that serious. It was bound to happen at some point," he said completely unperturbed as he returned to his previous position.

"But in the meantime," Chi-Chi said stalking over to him and easily taking the phone out of his grasp. "No more bright, computer-y screens!"

"But—wait, I was in the middle of something!" he said in desperation.

"How do you turn the light off on this thing anyway?" she said pressing buttons on the side.

For a split second, their hands touched as he snatched the phone out of her hand much harder than she expected.

"Hey!" she cried out.

"Just hold on—" He paused when he looked at the screen closely. "Shit," he said under his breath.

She thought for a moment that he was actually upset with her, but he silently placed the phone down on the table with the screen turned off.

"Sorry," she said finally when the silence became drawn out and he was staring down at the table as if he was completely lost.

"All my progress is gone—it's fine though," he said with a sigh, "I was struggling to get through it anyway. I was just making things worse. I'm sure I'll come up with something better later on when I'm not forcing it." He put it away in his side pocket.

"It's for your own good," she said before returning to her work in the kitchen.

"But now I'm bored," he complained just loud enough for her to hear over the boiling.

"I won't be too much longer."

In fact, she was almost done as she continued to stir and check the food for doneness. She took out the necessary bowls and poured in a modest amount for each of them. She had no clue how much Auden would want this time so she simply matched it with hers. As it turned out, he ended up going back for seconds and then thirds. She had no idea what to make of that. Despite his increased appetite, she still wound up having to store the rest of the food. It was difficult only cooking for two.

The day was finally winding down and it felt like it had been one of the longest she'd ever had. Her knew de-aging products were safely sitting on the floor next to her side of the bed, but she hadn't used them tonight. Purely due to preference, she wanted to start on the new regimen at the start of the day rather than at the end just to keep things equal.

It was much easier to fall asleep that night and Auden was already down for the count. As soon as she closed her eyes, that was all it took. Generally, she wasn't the best at finding sleep in new settings, but his bed was devilishly soft and seemed to always smell faintly of clean linen. It was difficult not to become relaxed especially in the presence of someone who gave off a constant air of placidity.

Chi-Chi found herself sitting in a darkened living room. As she looked around, she realized that it was completely unfamiliar to her. Where was she? Immediately she sensed someone beside her and turned to find Auden there looking at her intently with those piercing blue eyes of his. Had he been there the whole time? Why was she just now noticing him? She couldn't really read his expression, but she knew something wasn't right especially when he leaned in closer. They'd never been that close before at least not like this. Then suddenly he was kissing her—not softly, but aggressively. Her eyes were wide open in fright completely unprepared. When she tried to rip herself away, he yanked her back. She tried to wiggle herself out, but he had an iron grip on her. She tried smacking him, but he ignored it altogether. A yelp escaped her when he bit down on her lower lip.

"Get off of me!" she screamed out angrily. She could feel a trickle of blood sliding down her chin.

He was still fully engaged in kissing her with eyes closed, clearly getting pleasure out of it all. As she pulled back, he leaned forward until she was on her back and he held a more dominant position. He hadn't even bothered to speak. All she could hear was the occasional grunts of satisfaction as he continued to engage her. He seemed to be in his own little world. All her attempts to push him away were futile. It was like fighting against an immovable brick wall.

"STOP, PLEASE STOP!" she cried out in frustration between moments where he paused for a split second to breathe. "AUDEN—STOP! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!"

Then she was in complete darkness. It took her a moment to realize that she had woken up and that she was back in the bedroom. Out of an irrational fear born from her inexplicable dream, she glanced over at Auden's form beside her. He'd changed positions significantly in the night—while at first on his back now he was on his stomach with his face turned away from her. She breathed a sigh of relief. What in the world just happened? Did that mean anything significant? Should she be worried? She had no idea what to think.

She closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep again. It was beginning to feel like an impossible task. She laid in relative silence and listened to the low hum of a loud but far off HVAC unit along with the whooshing of cars still speeding through the city. Being in the suburbs back at home with Gohan, she wasn't privy to such sounds, but she wasn't particularly bothered by it. Because of the design of the bed, movement on the mattress was almost completely nullified upon contact, but she did feel the subtle shift in weight as Auden moved about. When she glanced over, she found that he was turned towards her now. Still, there was a ton of space between them. Besides, she'd be able to easily defend herself against the actual Auden who probably hadn't touched a dumbbell in his life. She returned to her pretend sleeping, waiting and waiting.

She felt him turning again a total of three more times and the latest one she could have sworn she heard a groan. There was no way he could actually be asleep being so active like this.

"Auden?" she called out.

The only thing she got was more shifting on his part.

"Will you cut it out already?"

This time a few moments later, she could hear moaning coming from his direction muffled though they were by the pillow and it was most likely in discomfort. Was he having a bad dream too? Or worse yet—was it about her?

"Auden," she said a bit louder, but he didn't respond.

He'd turned away from her again and then back to her—clearly tossing and turning. She weighed the options of letting this continue on like this or not, but if his dream was anywhere as frightening as hers perhaps it would be a mercy to wake him up from it. She shook him roughly so that he could snap out of it. Very quickly she found herself fending off flailing arms. She tried to move forward so that she could place calming hands on his shoulders, but he backed off quickly.

"No—please! I didn't mean to!" he cried out before crashing to the ground on the other side taking the comforter with him.

Under better circumstances, she might have laughed at his antics, instead she was just concerned that he'd hurt himself. He hadn't exactly leaped back to his feet. She crawled over the bed and peered down at his sprawled form. She couldn't see him very well and she wasn't familiar enough with his room to find the lamp.

"Are you okay?" All she could hear was his quick heavy breathing as if he was still scared. "It's just me, Auden. Just Chi-Chi, okay?"

"Chi-Chi?" he repeated between breaths. With a groan, she heard him sitting up. "I thought—well, nevermind."

"Having a rough night?"

She waited for him to respond, but he still seemed to be catching his breath and she was left trying to make him out in the darkness.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you," he finally said.

"No, no, it's fine. I wasn't having such a great night either."

"I think I just need to use the bathroom," he said quickly.

Though with a little bit of trouble climbing to his feet, Auden left the room in a hurry. She wondered if he really was having a horrible dream about her. She'd wanted to talk about it, but he cut the conversation abruptly.

"Of course," Chi-Chi said to herself. Even someone as soft-hearted as Auden didn't want to talk about such personal, vulnerable things.

She gathered back up the comforter, spread it back on the bed, and laid down again to attempt to sleep again—an endeavor that was quickly becoming a lost cause. The walls were thin, and the bathroom was close by. She would have heard the flushing of a toilet at some point, but many minutes passed and nothing of the like occurred.

"Screw it," she said thrusting the comforters aside.

She climbed out of bed and padded down the hall until she got to the closed door of the bathroom. Instead of alerting him of her presence, she listened carefully. She could hear something faintly, so she crept closer and pressed her ear to the door.

He was quietly sobbing—the quick, uneven intakes of breaths and the sniffles were all telltale signs. Listening to it just made her feel depressed. She had no idea why he was crying, but she felt terrible about it. She wondered if she should let him be for the night. Somehow that felt wrong even if doing anything else was likely intrusive. Chi-Chi sat down and carefully pressed her back up against the door.

"I'm here for you, Auden. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

She wasn't expecting a reply, but she had to let him know that much. Sitting with him seemed like the least she could do. Gradually, the crying did subside after some time. It felt like an eternity had passed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she ventured.

He cleared his throat at this. "I'd rather not. It wouldn't do much good." His voice was surprisingly clear. "You mentioned something earlier about not having a great night?"

"Oh, I wasn't sure you were listening. It's not worth discussing really…" It probably wasn't the best time to bring up the fact that her dream consisted of a very predatory version of Auden that made little to no sense. She couldn't think of any charitable way to interpret it.

"Too personal?"

"Too weird," Chi-Chi corrected.

"Hm," he said thoughtfully.

They were quiet for some time, but Chi-Chi could sense that he was nowhere near ready to go anywhere. He wound up being the one to break the silence.

"I haven't taken my medicine in two days now—maybe this is my just dessert."

"Your medicine?" she asked trying not to reveal that she'd seen his medicine cabinet.

"I'm sure you must have noticed it already in the cabinet, open for any curious person to see."

"Well—

"It's alright. I wasn't trying to hide anything. Aster would be beyond furious if she found out."

"Only you, ultimately, know what you need to take or not take. You know if something is or isn't working for you. No one can tell you that, but yourself."

"For these past couple days, my mind has been so crystal clear. I understand things much quicker, I can absorb things at a pace I haven't seen since childhood. All that fog and cloudiness constantly making each and every task that much more difficult and the constant drain on my energy—all of that was gone. Being able to interact with the world like that? Honestly, it's felt surreal."

"Do you still feel that way?"

"Well, yeah, but—it's not supposed to be that way."

"Who says?"

"My doctor, the one who knows way more about this stuff than I do. I have to take those pills or else…"

"Or else what?" she pressed.

"I'll stop functioning altogether."

She paused for a moment as she let his words sink in. "But you took that risk anyway and now days have passed. Do you feel like you're in danger of returning to that?"

"No, not like how it was before. It's definitely not as bad as it was before. Maybe it's because you've been here."

"I don't control how you deal with your own emotions. Something you've done has changed things."

"I'd like to think that."

"And…maybe this has something to do with your ki."

"That power from before…" he said almost to himself.

"Yeah. Ki definitely has an effect on one's emotions and physical body. From my experience, I know that it can boost your confidence. I mean, I guess I don't have any scientific evidence or anything, but I've seen it all too often. You just have so much of it that I wouldn't be surprised if it was effecting you somehow."

"I have no idea, but I suppose you have more experience with that than I do."

"This is what you should do," Chi-Chi said as an idea came to mind. "Setup an appointment with your doctors—optometrist, psychiatrist, whoever—and have them re-evaluate you. Maybe they'll find something different. Maybe you won't have to take all those pills anymore."

"You really think so?"

"I believe you know what you're talking about so just go get an expert opinion to confirm it. Then you don't have to wonder anymore."

"I think I will take your advice. I have to go at some point to get new prescriptions for my glasses anyway."

"How would you be able to get anywhere in the meantime, if I wasn't here?"

"I'd take a cab."

"Oh," she said after a moment, "Forgot about that."

"Don't worry about me."

"Well, you're not exactly making that easy for me."

"My apologies."

She sat with him a while longer until her eyelids became heavy with tiredness. Though she'd been restless before, now it was apparently gone. With a yawn, she climbed slowly back to her feet—she definitely struggled to do so. Maybe sitting on the floor hadn't been one of her better decisions.

"I'm going back to bed—you should join me whenever you can. You'll feel it in the morning, if you fall asleep in there."

"Yeah, I know," he said wearily.

She waited for a moment longer. When she heard no further movement from him, she trudged back down the hall. Immediately upon entering the room, she could hear his phone vibrating under the pillow. She was tempted to look at it, but instead stilled her curiosity. She was hoping it would stop after a while, but it kept going and going. It was beginning to sound like something urgent. Eventually, when she couldn't take it anymore, she reached under to find out who was calling in the dead of the night. She read the caller ID—Pan. She wondered if she should just answer it…

---

AN: Well, I'll just leave you there on a cliffhanger! Otherwise, this chapter would go on for an eternity. 😊

What the heck guys? I'm so off-script with this story. I wrote the outline and now I'm way off on some other plotline. I don't know. I'm just having fun here, but there will be more Pan in the story. Anybody enjoying the Chi-Chi/Auden romance as much as I am? Life just throws curveballs at you, doesn't it? I still have a lot more things in store. So much to write, so little time. Oh and, be healthy and safe out there everyone. Stay alert, not anxious.