A/N: I'm sorry for being such a whiner, guys, but I'm sure other authors on here can sympathize. Thank you so much to everyone who constantly reviews. I seriously appreciate it. The second I see a review I'm inspired to write, like with this chapter. This story is nearly over-one or two more chapters left-and it's gonna have a happy ending. I'm going to return to a Goku/OC darkfic when this is through. Again, I'm really sorry for being a bitch but it gets frustrating. On another note, has anyone seen Wrath of the Dragon? The whole thing between Tapion and Bulma talking late at night has the cogs in my head turning...

Oh, and about Goku being like Lennie: I completely agree. They have a lot of strong parallels but I like it that way. Goku is portrayed as mostly perfect in the show with very few flaws, besides maybe his appetite. He has a heart of gold, cares deeply about others, and he's immensely powerful. I like the concept of him not understanding the full limits of his strength, especially after the episode where he accidentally hits poor Chi-Chi through a tree. I try to give him a solid flaw and that one works in most of my stories. :)

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

-MalRev

Spectre

24

The situation wasn't any better at the Briefs household.

Bulla and I walked inside only for her to yank me down to the floor when a chair nearly knocked my head off. There was a lot of yelling and Bulla blindly led me across the room to the kitchen, where she pushed me in a chair and sighed heavily. I carefully peeked out from underneath my hands to see Gohan squaring off with Trunks, who was bleeding profusely from a cut lip. He had a black eye and a morose expression on his face as if he had no will to live anymore.

Gohan cracked his neck and punched Trunks so quickly that I only saw him fly across the room and collide with the wall. They were fighting again a few seconds later, lost to my eyes in a flurry of fists. Bulla didn't seem very surprised—she was casually scrolling through Facebook on her phone while the two men beat the hell out of each other. I squinted at the fight to see if I was missing something; if this was all just a game, but it seemed pretty serious. This kind of thing must've been considered normal.

Across the room, the rest of the group was sitting with stony faces. Bulma was shaking her head while Vegeta looked on at the fight with a clenched jaw. Beside them sat Videl and Pan, holding hands while Pan appeared to be crying into her mother's shoulder. I looked to Bulla for a bit of context but she was texting people and didn't seem interested in helping me out. What the hell was going on?

"Can't you two take this outside?" Bulma asked irately. "You're going to destroy Capsule Corp. and then Trunks and Goten won't have a job to come back to."

Gohan paused in the middle of punching Trunks in the face with an outraged gleam in his eyes. His own face was miraculously unharmed, meaning this was a one-sided fight. "I don't know, Bulma. Do you think your son could've stayed away from my fifteen year old daughter?"

Vegeta rose to his feet in a flash and his chair clattered to the ground. "This is nonsense! Your daughter is practically a woman! She can become my son's mate if she wishes. The Saiyan bloodline will become even stronger through the union of my blood with Kakarot's."

"I highly doubt dad would approve of this," Gohan hissed, gesturing to Pan and Trunks.

"You never know," Bulla said.

All of them turned to look at us. I was watching the fight rapturously and felt a little stupid under their intense gazes, so I dropped my eyes to examine the table. Bulla was busy on her phone, completely ignoring how she had titled the argument towards us. I heard something drop on the floor with a low thump and Trunks groaned in pain as feet moved across the hardwood floors toward us. The chair beside me squeaked and I could feel prickling heat near my leg.

"You're an enabler, Bulla," Gohan said. "You've been pushing Pan to…" He coughed uncomfortably before continuing. "I thought it was a joke but you were serious. Why do you think this is okay? Pan is way too young to be with someone your brother's age. There's no way I can allow this."

"Oh, don't blame her," Bulma said offhandedly. "Vegeta's right. The two of them grew up together. You know Trunks isn't some riff-raff off the street. He owns his own company for God's sake. Relax and let lovers love, Gohan."

"Age makes a huge difference in whether or not a relationship will work. There's ten years between Trunks and Pan. Maybe in a few years when she's out of high school I would approve, but not now." Gohan ran a hand through his thick hair. He looked awfully tired. "I mean, that's like Goten going after Bulla. It doesn't make any sense and I'm not allowing it."

Bulla looked at me pointedly. "See? This is why it's better to keep your mouth shut."

The argument resumed around us but Gohan didn't leave his seat beside me. He was probably trying to resist the urge to kill Trunks. I silently stared at the table while everyone bickered about how right or wrong their relationship was. Everyone seemed to be fine with it except Gohan, who was vehemently against Pan having any boyfriend until she graduated high school. She stopped crying after a while, sniffling pitifully while Bulma wiped the blood off Trunks's face.

It was sort of a look into what would happen if Goku and I decided to go public with our relationship. Our families would fight, there would be punches thrown, and in the end, everyone would hurt. I understood why Bulla kept so many things to herself. When you lived with a bunch of Saiyans, emotions were constantly running high. They would all go ballistic if they knew what happened to her.

I dropped my head on the table with a heavy sigh. There was so much drama with these people. Why couldn't they get it together and act normal? Bulma was right. Gohan knew Trunks from a young age and also knew he wasn't the kind of guy who would ditch Pan for no reason. It had taken a long time for him to accept his feelings and start dating her. They should be encouraging, not—

The front door suddenly burst open, slamming against the wall with a loud crash. My head snapped up to see the dreaded Chi-Chi walking inside with Yamcha trailing behind, hands in his pockets. She put her hands on her hips, commanding attention that everyone automatically gave her. I tried to shrink behind Gohan and fuse with the background like a chameleon. Oh god, oh god, she was going to kill me.

Bulla started laughing. "Are those your clothes?"

I heard them fall to the floor and the scrape of Chi-Chi's shoe as she kicked them. Without looking up, I could tell everyone was staring at me, wanting an explanation.

"These were in my destroyed bedroom!" Chi-Chi screeched. "They're much too conservative to be Bulla's and I know Marron was coming to live with us. You know, I didn't want her to but Goku kept pushing because Krillin asked nicely. Little did I know what he actually…" She stopped and screamed even louder. "ARE YOU WEARING MY HUSBAND'S CLOTHES?!"

"Will you relax?!" Bulla said. She put her phone down and folded her arms exactly like Vegeta. They were eerily similar. "No one wants to listen to your endless bitching."

Bulma gasped. "Bulla! Do not talk to Chi-Chi that way!"

Vegeta snickered until his wife smacked him in the arm.

Gohan turned and look me up and down, seeming to notice for the first time what I was wearing. "I guess she is. But I want to resolve things with Trunks and Pan before we open that can of worms."

Chi-Chi was across the room in an instant. She grabbed Gohan's face in one of her bony hands and forced him to look at her, drawing out a level of fear I had never seen in a grown man. He swallowed hard and nodded while she chewed him out for interrupting her. I risked a peek from under my eyelids to see that Videl was scowling deeply at her mother-in-law, obviously unhappy with how her husband was being treated. I couldn't say I blamed her.

Then Chi-Chi turned to me.

She reached across the counter to grab my wrist and pinned it down. Her eyes were ablaze with unbridled fury. "Did you have a good time, Marron? Do you feel guilty about what you've done or do you just not care? We've all been bending over backwards to make you feel comfortable and you do this? I suppose when you leave a sub-human to raise children, nothing good can come of it."

I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to defend myself. I sat there dumbly as she cocked her hand back to slap me. I guess I deserved it. I closed my eyes.

The air whistled through her fingers and abruptly stopped. There was a warm presence behind me, and I felt a big hand grip my bicep. Chi-Chi made an angry choking sound and I curiously my eyes open. The first thing I saw was Bulma trying to hide a grin across the room.

"Why don't you tell us who here is sub-human?"

Mom walked out from behind the counter, dangling Goten's limp body by the collar of his shirt from her index finger. She carelessly threw him to the floor and he moaned very lightly in pain—there was blood all over his suit. I felt a second hand on my other bicep as mom circled around to face Chi-Chi with a hand on her hip. She wasn't showing any emotion. It was absolutely terrifying.

Chi-Chi immediately knelt down to check on her son and glared up at mom. "Your daughter's clothes were in my bedroom. I know she was there with my husband and I was trying to figure out why."

"She ran away into the rain," Goku said. He wasn't nearly as meek as he usually was around his wife. "I couldn't let her sit around in wet clothes so I gave her mine. But I think Goten can explain what happened much better than any of us. After all, he's at the center of everything."

"Amen," Bulla muttered, popping grapes in her mouth.

"Goten wouldn't hurt a fly," Chi-Chi said. "Goku, did you allow the Android to do this? He looks terrible! He'll need a senzu bean or he'll be in the hospital for weeks."

"No, I didn't let her. She had already done most of the work, but I helped. I have to tell you, it felt really good pummeling him. He needed it." Goku tightened his grip on me, kneading his fingers into my arm. "No senzu beans. Goten is going to pay for what he's done. 18 and I had a long talk about it and decided that was the best route to go."

Gohan turned in his chair to look up at his father. "This isn't like you, dad. What could Goten have possibly done to deserve this?"

Bulla sarcastically raised her hand, waving it back and forth in the air to catch everyone's attention. "Ooo, let me tell you! It's a great story!"

"No," Goten groaned from the floor, "please don't."

The words had been waiting to burst out of Bulla for a long time. There was no way she'd give up the chance if Goten was already blacklisted by so many people. I sat quietly while she relayed the events of the past year, beginning with Goten luring her back to his house. It wasn't easy to hear and Vegeta's eyes were bloodshot from rage at the end but I could tell Bulla was feeling better as the confessions poured out of her. The dam had broken and the truth needed to be told.

Bulma had to hold Vegeta back and Pan left her mother's side to console Trunks as he stared in horror at his coworker. Bulla told them about The Ring and how Goten dragged her into the business venture. She told them about his plans for me and how they were foiled by Goku's involvement in my life. I waited calmly for her to tie it all back to my relationship with him but it was neatly avoided.

When Bulla finished, tears were streaming down her face. Her mother opened her arms and I watched my friend hurry across the room to hug both of her parents, laughing when Vegeta continued glaring daggers at Goten over her arm. I was happy for them. I hoped Bulla could move on and act like a normal teenager instead of having to be caught up in so much craziness. We all deserved that kind of stability.

Mom nodded at Goku tersely. "I believe you have something to say. Better to get it out now than wait so everyone can know. Besides, I'd like to embarrass the witch for what she's said."

Gohan went back to sit with his wife and daughter so Goku took a seat next to me. He looked to my mother once again and she rolled her eyes, but was actually smiling a bit. I was completely terrified. What had they talked about? Did she know? Was she gonna kill him?

Goku took one of my small hands in his and leveled his eyes with Chi-Chi, who was still cradling Goten on the floor despite everything she had just heard. I noticed Yamcha was strangely absent.

"Marron and I… well… well y'see, it's sort of a funny story…" Goku rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and I realized with dread that he was about to spill the beans. "We um… we were together so much while Chi was with Yamcha all the time painting but they weren't really painting but I didn't want to believe that and it took a while for me to understand and be confident enough to—"

"They're in love," mom interrupted. She cast him a mildly annoyed look. "And they're getting married."