A/N: Short again. No reason to draw it out unnecessarily.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Ball Z or anything affiliated with it.

-MalRev

Spectre

04

Our flight home was silent. Mom stared straight ahead as she carried me through the air and I was afraid to say anything. She wasn't happy—it could be hard to tell because she rarely showed emotion, but sometimes her anger was so intense it was almost tangible. I worked on keeping myself from vomiting again and wondered what it was like to have normal parents.

My mother wasn't fully human. She was very withdrawn and restrained her feelings for the most part, only letting them show on rare occasions. We didn't bond very well. I knew she cared deeply for me and dad reminded me of that a constant basis, but… I still wished mom didn't act like a robot.

Back at home, she dropped me off and rigidly walked to her bedroom, slamming the door shut before I could say a word. It was a typical response when she was mad. She had a tight control over her feelings but her anger could spiral out of control very quickly. I sighed and went to my own bedroom. I'd need a clean set of pajamas and a long, hot shower.

I drifted back to thinking of Goku and my father's conversation as I headed to the bathroom. Dad looked so confused, like he didn't know who any of us were. Mom was oddly aggravated by him and she normally enjoyed the way dad acted. They were opposites and that drew them together.

So what kind of intense discussion was dad having with Goku and why did it seem to upset mom? Hopefully their conversation wouldn't last very long and I'd be awake to talk to my father. What a crazy way to catch up with all our old friends. Nothing ever felt normal when the Saiyans were around. There was always some kind of nonsense going on no matter how stable things looked.

The shower was exactly what I needed to relieve my stress. I eagerly scrubbed my hair and washed the dirt off my body, trying to get used to the bigger bathroom. It was pretty nice. The shower head was one of those waterfall type spouts that made it easier to clean yourself off. As I rinsed out the shampoo, I thought I heard the door creak open downstairs.

There were feet on the second floor. Mom was going down to greet dad. I finished up and hopped out of the shower to dry myself off, then yanked on my pajamas and left the bathroom. As I hurried toward the stairs, fully intending on making my presence known, I heard sobbing. I rocked back on my heels.

"You're fine," mom said. "You just need to change your diet and start exercising again."

"I can't do it anymore. I know I'm going to wake up one day and… and…" Dad started crying even harder. It wasn't something I was used to hearing.

A chair scraped against the floor and I carefully crept down the stairs, hanging by the banister to listen in on their conversation. I wasn't supposed to be involved in it. As I strained to hear, I began wishing I had been born a Saiyan like the others. All of this kind of stuff came so easily to them.

Mom sighed. "Krillin, you're thinking too much about it. Focus on what you have. You've been worrying your entire life and you need to calm down now. It's safe."

"That doesn't change anything. I can't stop this and I want to make sure Marron is taken care of."

"I'm here for her. I'm here mother, I think we get along pretty well and—"

"Babe," dad said, starting to get a hold of himself, "Marron is a human like me. It's different for her."

My eyes widened. What the heck were they talking about? Was something wrong with dad? If Goku was pressuring him into leaving to train or whatever, I'd march right over to his house and punch him in the mouth. I knew coming back to our home town was a bad idea. There was always drama.

They were both silent for a long time and I reluctantly went back upstairs to go to bed. Something strange was going on and no one wanted me to know. I'd have to dig deeper and ask questions no one wanted to answer. God, I'd been hoping moving back home would make everything easier for us.

I crawled under my sheets and tried to relax, but I couldn't. I tossed and turned for nearly an hour before I gave up and got out of bed to pace. How was I supposed to confront my parents? Dad was really upset so I didn't want to make anything worse, but I couldn't keep living in the dark. I'd be going back to school in a few days and I wanted everything cleared up before I tackled that.

The remnants of venom helped make me too tired to keep worrying. Soon I was back in my bed, lids heavy from exhaustion and fighting off a pounding headache. I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the sound of the distant traffic.

…For a while.

Tapping woke me maybe an hour after I finally started dreaming. I blearily blinked and rubbed my eyes to see two people hovering outside my window. When I flipped on the lights, I hurriedly opened it to allow Pan and Bulla inside; praying my mother or father wouldn't sense their energy. Both of them looked distressed but Bulla made herself comfortable on my bed.

I shut the window and turned to face them, yawning profusely. "Hey guys, what's goin' on?"

Pan crossed her arms and sat beside Bulla. "Neither of us could sleep because we felt bad, so we came here to apologize for earlier. We shouldn't have ditched you in the woods like that. Sometimes we forget what it's like to be around a human. We're really sorry and we're happy you're okay."

"Good thing Goku was there," Bulla said, examining her nails. "Goten noticed you were missing and none of us could pick up your energy because it was practically gone. Now that we've all calmed down we feel terrible about what happened. We'll make sure we remember you're a human."

I shrugged and sat on the bed along with them. "It's okay. I know my shortcomings."

"Being human isn't bad," Pan said. "I'm only a quarter Saiyan and sometimes, I really wish I wasn't. We eat a lot and if I don't burn my energy every day, I feel sick. I don't know about Bulla, but I always feel like I'm on edge. I liked it when I was younger and I sparred more but the only thing keeping me from going crazy now is playing soccer."

"Nothing is worse than sensing my parents' energy spiking at night." Bulla made a disgusted face and shook her head. "Don't feel like you're different than any of us. It's nice finally having someone partially normal hanging out with us. You'll fit in perfect at school. I bet all the guys in class are gonna be asking for your number and inviting you to parties. Be happy with what you are, Marron."

I smiled at them and began to feel better. They were right. So what if I was human? There was nothing wrong with being like everyone else. It was easier for me to fit in, I didn't have any of the downsides of being partially Saiyan, and I could still control energy just as well as they could. They were trying to make me feel welcome instead of ostracizing me from their group.

"Thank you," I said. "Did you guys hear anything from Goku or Chi-Chi? He was talking to my dad about something important and I wanna know what it was. He seems stressed out."

"Well I went over and saw grandpa right before your dad left," Pan said, tapping her chin. "Your father was kind of… what's the word… dejected? Grandpa looked distracted. He patted me on the head and went to bed so I hung out with grandma for a while. She was pissed off about how poorly your welcome home party turned out."

Bulla nodded. "My mom was mad, too. Dad didn't care but he never does. Trunks was arguing with Goten about god knows what—probably Panny and you. I bet your dad just yelled at Goku and told him he was a jerk for running off without telling us."

That was a good point. Maybe dad reamed on Goku but didn't want mom and me around to see it. I agreed with them and we shifted to a different topic that was less depressing—school and what there was to do around the city. The events of the night were mostly pushed from my mind.

Around two in the morning Pan and Bulla decided it was time to leave. We hugged and decided to meet up to go shopping the next morning so they could skip school and I could enjoy my last few days of sweet freedom. I watched them fly off over the horizon and locked my window, turning back to finally drop off to sleep. At least all of that was taken care of.

It started pouring rain as I fell asleep. Hopefully Pan and Bulla made it home safe.