I hope you are appreciating that I keep my timelines with the updates. Here you go with the new chapter!

Chapter 3

Reunion

A year passed since Bulma lived on Vegetasei and now finally after such a long time, she was able to see Chichi again quite unexpectedly. While she never mentioned her, she had an enormous compunction that she simply left her on Aoi-sei. She only had time to briefly inform her about her possible departure when she run back to the mine to get water for Vegeta, on the day he crashed. She asked her not to leave her alone, but she had no other choice. Getting to Vegetasei was the first step to escape. As she walked into the dining area, where the slaves had their meals, she again recalled their goodbyes. The place was the same area the saiyans used, but they had the right side of the place, while the slaves only had a small portion of the left side. It was almost as big as the laboratory, with a huge wooden door. The tables at the saiyans' side where round shaped, each with six-ten chairs. They were made of wood and had a rustic impression; they were durable but simple. There was no design, no frill, they simply served their purpose, with no intention of being decorative. Saiyans hardly ever used plastic for furniture, even though they were familiar with the material. The floor was covered with grey marvel, the walls were also greyish and bare. So far Bulma hasn't seen any painting, sculpture or other décor items. She had the impressions saiyans were not familiar with those. Even so, the castle was impressive with its huge rooms and its simplicity. The slaves' tables were long and rectangular, with benches at each side. The food distribution system reminded her of prisons; they had to pick up a tray and they had to go over a long counter, where two slaves gave them out their plates, filled with food. Compared to prison though, the food was good and nutritious and the warriors received more than just a few plates. At the end of the counter they could fill their jugs with water from huge barrels. Bulma was not really paying attention while she ate, so she was startled when suddenly Chichi appeared in front of her and she also sit down.

"Chichi?!" Bulma cried, jumped up and hugged her. "How come you are here?"

"They were short on kitchen staff and as I was one of the people who cooked on Aoi, they brought me here. I couldn't believe how lucky I was!" She smiled and hugged her back.

She was wearing a light-brown shirt with buttons on the front and white trousers with sandals. She also had a white head scarf and her long dark hair was in ponytail. Compared to the dirty clothing she wore on Aoi-sei, she looked rather good.

"I'm so sorry, that I left you there…" Bulma said.

"Don't worry, I understand! It's not so bad anyway, even for those, who are working in the mines. Your machines are really helping."

"I'm just worried, what will happen, when they break. I need to find an excuse soon to go back and do some maintenance. Anyhow, since when are you here? When can we talk?"

"I just got here this morning, but I'm on kitchen duty until the evening. I might be able to sneak out later."

"No, I will come here, that's better. As a scientist, I can go almost anywhere in the palace. Well, not to the west wing, but I don't mind that; I have no interest in the royal family's quarters."

"I'm so glad that you gave me the gravitation belt when you left, it was useful" Chichi smiled. "I trained every day, hoping that I might end up here."

She quickly removed it from her waist and gave it back to Bulma, who put it in one of the huge pockets of her overall. While it looked nothing more as a simple belt, it would be dangerous in case the saiyans found out its real function. It was highly unlikely as Karris was the only one from them who knew anything about technology, but the fact remained that some parts were borrowed from a spaceship.

"I'm glad that I had the time to give it to you" Bulma smiled back, remembering, how she suddenly removed it from her waist and pushed it into her hands.

They only had time to speak, until Chichi was eating her meal, so she tried not to hurry without catching any attention. She was really happy to see Bulma again, it was almost a whole year ago, that she talked with her. She was 10 years old, but already mastered cooking at a professional level. She was always interested in it, because even as a little girl her dream was to become a perfect wife. She had hardly any memory about her mother as she died when she was 2 years old, but she still remembered that her meals tasted the best! Even though his father hired famous chiefs, none of their dishes tasted quite the same. Cooking for somebody must be one of the most wonderful things on the world, but right now her future didn't look very bright.

With the promise that Bulma will visit her in the evening, she went back to the kitchen, to do the dishes. It was quite a hard task as saiyan really eat a lot. First, when she saw the amount of food they were preparing, she had no idea, why they needed so much. Then she recalled how much the saiyans on Aoi-sei demanded, when they came for the gold and it all began to make sense. The kitchen was quite modern and almost as big as the dining area itself. They had a dozen of stoves next to each other and at the opposite side they had almost as many washing stations. Some were for dishes, some for washing vegetables or meat. Between them was the preparing counter, with neatly organised drawers and built-in cabinets. It seemed, just like they had popular races in scientists, they also developed a preference regarding kitchen staff. The first race was humanoid, with the difference that they were completely bold and their eyes were yellow; they were the Hallows. The second was a race called Yami, with wolf-like creatures. They were almost two meters high and their arms and legs were covered with grey hair. Their eyes were red, their ears pointy, just like they teeth. Despite the scary looks, they were rather weak and peaceful. Chichi also discovered two elderly women with grey hair and it turned out they were the bosses and had the responsibility to run the place smoothly. First she though they were from Earth, but later she learned that they were also aliens, belonging to a race called Chovesh. Chichi sighed and began to wash up the dishes, thinking, that this is like a special training to be the best housewife! She still hasn't given up on that dream, though right now she had little chance to ever get married. After half an hour her palms were completely red from all the work, but she shrugged it off and went out to clean the tables.

"Don't tell me, lunch is already over!" She heard a voice and as she turned around, she saw Kakarott standing at the doorway.

She instantly recognised him and launched an attack towards him. He easily jumped away from her kick and so she crashed into the wall. She jumped up and tried again, but failed. Regardless how many times she tried to hit him, he easily deflected her punches. Finally, she gave up, fell to the ground and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Wow, you are quite good! Who are you?" Kakarott asked smiling.

"I'm Chichi" She answered and had no idea, what to do next.

She fully expected him to kill her for trying to hurt him, but he just smiled like an idiot. Just like Bulma, she was confused; she expected a monster and all she saw was a boy, who was the same age as she. How could he be responsible for all that destruction?

'I'm Kakarott" He said and without any warning, he helped her up, then touched her… there!

"Woa…" She cried out so loudly that she managed to hurt his sensitive ears and he backed off. "What do you think you are doing? Pervert!"

"So, you are a girl… I was right after all!" Kakarott said and had a goofy smile on his face.

"Did you have to confirm it by touching me… ?"

"Wow, you are just like Bulma! She was also pretty pissed when I found out she is a girl."

"You… you touched me there! What should I do? I cannot get married, as I'm not pure any more…" Chichi cried and as she fell to her knees, tears were flowing from her eyes.

"Hey, why are you crying?" Kakarott asked and run around her confused.

"Because… because…" She cried and was unable to finish the sentence.

After a few minutes she managed to gather herself a bit and answered:

"I cannot marry anybody now."

"Marry?" Kakarott raised his eye-brown.

Then it hit Chichi; there was one man, whom she could marry; Kakarott. He was the one who took her… purity… so he had to take responsibility. It wasn't ideal, she never planned to marry the man, who destroyed her home planet, but there was no other way.

"You have to marry me!" She called and stood up.

"Marry? Is it some kind of food?" He asked and before she could answer, he nodded: "Sure, I can do that, just stop crying!"

"Oh my…" Chichi blushed and covered her face to lessen her embarrassment.

"Are you ok?" He asked, and tried to peek at her, between her fingers.

Instead of answering, she just nodded, still covering her face.

"Say, is there any way you can get me some food?"

"Sure thing!" She cried out and disappeared in the kitchen.

While Kakarott sit down to a table, he seriously had trouble figuring out what just happened. This girl was even stranger than Bulma. She was trying to punch him, then she cried and now she was happy. He gave up trying to decipher the meaning of the whole encounter, as soon as she was back with 4 fully loaded plates.

"Can I have seconds?" He asked as he devoured all of the food.

"Sure!" Chichi answered smiling.

Maybe she was crazy for marrying him, but with Kakarott as a husband she will have plenty of opportunities to cook as he could eat a lot. She blushed as she imagined her older-self cooking, while his older version was sitting at the dining table, waiting for the meal to be ready.

"I'm full" He called and leaned back on the chair, patting his belly satisfied.

"You can come any time, I'm sure I can get you some extra food" Chichi winked at him.

"That sounds great!"

That was how their relationship began to develop and from that day on, Kakarott was an every-day guest in the kitchen. Despite everything, Chichi just couldn't hate him; he wasn't evil after all. She asked herself, whether she was crazy thinking this and came up with the conclusion that she might be. She heard love was supposed to make people crazy, meaning she must be really in love with him!

"What is this?" Kakarott asked as he stepped into the kitchen.

It was already way past dinnertime and all the other slaves went back to their quarters to get some sleep. This was usually the time, when Bulma came over and Chichi had the opportunity to talk with her.

"This is a board game called Hotels" Bulma answered.

She found it in one of the storage rooms a few days ago. It turned out that sometimes saiyans grabbed things from other planets about which they had no idea what it was used for and put it in one of the storage rooms. With time they either asked a scientist to figure it out or when they run out of space, they just threw it out. She also found a couple of cards, a shogi board and a photo album from Earth. Bulma was sitting on the ground with Chichi and they were just about to start a game. The game board was put down between them and some of the fake money was distributed. He came to them, crouched down and inspected the board and the pieces with interest.

"Do you want to play as well?" Chichi asked.

"Play?" Kakarott asked, not quite sure, what they meant, while he picked up the dice and licked it, trying to figure out whether it was edible.

He threw it back with a disappointed face and sniffed the fake money this time.

"Yes, play! Don't tell me saiyans have no board games!" Bulma called, trying to ignore his strange behaviour.

"I don't think they have."

"So what do you play? Do you play tag? Hide-and-seek?"

As Bulma continued to ask questions, it turned out, saiyan children never really played any games. They were either on missions or on trainings.

"Come on, let's show him how to play tag!" Chichi called, grabbing both of their hands and dragging them into the dining area.

The room was in the left wing of the palace, far away from all the other rooms and sleeping quarters. They had no need to worry about somebody overhearing them and none of the saiyans wandered around the kitchen anyway, unless it was lunch or dinner-time. Well, apart from Kakarott, who sometimes dropped by between meals as well, to get some extra food from Chichi.

"I have to catch you?" Kakarott asked, after they explained the rules.

"Yes" Bulma nodded.

"Ok…" He answered, not quite sure what the purpose of the whole thing was.

"It's not fair, you are too quick!" Chichi complained, after she tried to catch Kakarott for 5 minutes, without any success.

She was out of breath and perspiration appeared on her forehead. She already removed the head scarf and her apron, but those were not really responsible for her slowness.

"I might have a solution for that!" Bulma cried out with an evil smile and she disappeared.

Kakarott and Chichi exchanged a confused look, having no idea, what she was up to. Then, as soon as Chichi saw the gravity belt in Bulma's hand, she also began to smile.

"Just let me put this on you!" Bulma said, while she kneeled down and put the belt around him.

"What is this?" He asked, nudging the belt with his finger.

"Something, what will give us some advantage!"

With that said, Bulma turned on the belt and set it on the 4th level, meaning the current gravity increased 4 times around him.

"Woah…" He cried and he almost fell to the ground.

Chichi and Bulma both watched him struggle with a bright smile.

"My body feels heavy!" Kakarott commented, as he tried to get up.

It took him a few minutes until he figured out how much he was capable of physically with the belt turned on. Then the fun began; this time Bulma and Chichi quite easily managed to get away from him and he ended up being the one, who couldn't catch them.

"Can I keep it?" He asked after half an hour.

All three of them lie exhausted on the floor, trying to catch their breaths'.

"No, but you can come and play with us the next time and then you can have it!"

"Great!" He agreed and smiled.

By that time, all doubt disappeared from Bulma and Chichi regarding him. Kakarott wasn't evil, he just never learned what was wrong and what was right. Or at least he learned it all the wrong way.

Bardock was just crossing the royal garden, with his wife by his side. The palace had a huge garden, which held all kind of strange flora. At some places it was just grass and bushes, at others a whole variety of plants lived together. They walked on a pavement which led through the whole area, when Bardock suddenly stopped, seeing something unexplainable. Gine, his wife almost bumped into him, not expecting such a sudden halt. Following his gaze, she soon realised why he looked baffled and she was also trying to figure out the meaning of all. Kakarott was in the garden with six other saiyan children and they were chasing each other. Or actually, just one was chasing the others and they were jumping and running away from him. They were on a clearing, which also had some benches and it was a good relaxing spot for warriors, when they had a little bit if a time.

"You are slow Kale!" Kakarott teased him.

"Why, you little…" Kale shouted back and began to run towards him.

He was a year older than Kakarott, with short pointy hair. He was also a low class warrior, whose first mission was to destroy a planet. As Kale rushed towards Kakarott, he decided to jump when he was near, but Kakarott ducked and he ended up catching another saiyan; Edivia. Edivia was a 6 years old girl with shoulder-length hair, who was a middle-class warrior.

"That's not fair!" She cried out and began to chase the others.

"Time out!" Tatsoi called and he walked over to a bench and sit down, catching his breath.

He was 9 years old and an elite. Even so, after three hours of playing tag, he was completely beaten.

"Say, what is this?" Bardock asked, looking down at him.

"It's something called tag" Tatsoi answered, not even bothering looking up at him.

"Tag?" Bardock asked back and exchanged a confused look with Gine.

"Kakarott said it's some kind of game, children played on Earth. But I have no idea, how they could play such a trying game, with their power levels."

"I never knew he spoke with humans, when he was on Earth" Gine commented, looking at Kakarott.

"Neither did I. It's bad enough that it took him 5 years to return, but if the King learns he was wasting his time talking with the inhabitants… that will be bad" Bardock said.

Little did the saiyan children knew, that human tag was nothing like the one, what they played. They were running at high speed, jumping up meters high to avoid the tagger and sometimes even kicking him in the face, before running away. It was a rough game, nothing like human tag. The only reason why Kakarott could play it at a "normal" level with Chichi and Bulma was due to the gravity belt. On the other hand, he could also play it with the other saiyan children as they had similar abilities.

"Let's play dodge-ball!" Edivia suddenly called and after a cheering agreement the children split into two groups and as Tatsoi run back as well, he grabbed a ball.

Bardock and Gine looked bewildered how the children were trying to hit each other with a ball. Seriously? Even if they manage to hit each other, it's not like it would hurt. Then why?

"Hey, just what the hell are you two doing?" Pease stepped to them.

He was one of their teammates and they were often sent on missions together.

"We are coming!" Bardock answered.

Pease also threw a baffled look at the kids, but decided not to overthink it as they already had their assignments and had to be in the hangar within minutes to departure with their spaceships towards the next target.

"Crap, we have to go or we will miss dinner!" Edivia called.

They dropped a ball and began to run toward the dining hall. When they arrived and took their food, Kakarott's eyes met Chichi's and they smiled at each other. Somehow it looked like Kakarott was not just friends with her and Bulma, but he also made friends with the saiyan children. Prior to playing with them "Earth games", Chichi never saw him together with others and in general, children never really looked they had friends at all.

I know, this chapter had no Vegeta in it and I'm sorry for that. I also missed the guy :D However I thought this is really important from the story perspective, so I just had to write it like this. However I might (emphasis on might) post an extra chapter later this week, as I'm making quite a good progress on the story in the background. We will see! I appreciate all the reviews, favourites and follows so far, please keep this good habit, it really makes my day and motivates me even more to write the story!