I am awakened by the feeling of being pulled forwards. I gasp, and stumble as I am pulled out of my bed by a rough, firm hand.

Da shoves me through the living room where Kage and the baby still slept, and outside.

"Where are we going?" I ask, trying to keep up, but his strides are too fast.

"Out." He says without looking at me. "We need to talk."

"But Da, the baby-"

"You're crack-head mate will take care of it." He says flatly, and leads me outside.

I frown, but follow him anyways. "He's not a crack head," I say. "You smoke crack, and snort cocaine. He snorts, not smokes."

He whirls around and I jump back. "You think this is funny?" He demands of me. "You think this is a joke?"

I shake my head. "I didn't mean it like-"

"You didn't mean it," He spits. "Just like you didn't mean for any of this to happen?"

I fall silent. It was better just to let him yell for a while.

"You, boy," He says, grabbing the collar of my shirt. "Are lucky I don't kill you right now."

This isn't the first time he'd threatened to kill me, but it is the first time I think he actually meant it.

"Do you understand what danger you put yourself into?" He demands.

I give him a blank look.

"Obviously not!" He cries. "You could have died, you know! You could have died in that living room yesterday, giving birth at your age!"

"But I didn't die," I point out boldly, not meaning to make him angrier, but that's exactly what I did.

"But you could have!" He screams. "You could be dead right now, and no Dragon could bring you back! Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

I stare up at him, terrified. What was I supposed to say? Anything I said would make him fly off the handle. It was better to say nothing, and just look dumb.

He pushes me down, and I land on the ground hard. He towers over me, looking very intimidating. "During their first rut season, many young Saiyans become with child, and die during birth, and usually the child dies as well. It happens all too often because they are young, and don't know what they're doing. You running off into space, where there is no medical care, no doctors, and no one to watch over you? It was easily the most selfish thing I've ever seen." He seethes, his voice low it was almost a whisper.

Something in me snaps, and I jump to my feet. "You where the one that told me to go!" I shout, getting up in his face. "You told me to go ahead up into space with my 'addict of a fuck buddy' and that you didn't care! I was doing just what you said!"

His face goes a little slack as he glares at me.

I was taller than him now, I noticed. I could just see over his head, if his hair wasn't in the way. I felt good yelling back at him, but now that it was silent, I started to feel uncomfortable.

I take a step back, and cross my arms, trying to look confident.

He gives me a little scoff. "You've grown some balls since you've been in space, huh?" He says with a roll of his eyes. "Not even Trunks has gotten up in my face like that."

"I'm not scared of you." I say darkly, glaring.

He nods, as if to say yes, obviously. He steps towards me, and I resist the urge to step back. He clasps a hand to my shoulder. "You're a good kid," He says, unexpectedly. "I… apologize. For before."

I give him a suspicious look. Now came the punch to the face, right? But it never came. He was apologizing? To me? Something was wrong here.

He looks away from me for a moment and looks up at the sky. "You remind me so much of myself, it's scary sometimes."

My eyebrows rise in confusion. "Really." I say flatly, not really believing him.

He nods. "Every time I look at you, I see a version of me… but a better me." He looks back at me, his face completely sincere. "You… fascinate me."

I cock my head, squinting. What was going on? Were we… having a father-son moment? Because I yelled at him?

He crosses his arms. "You're all the things that I… can't be."

He was being too vague. I didn't understand what he meant. He beckons for me to follow him, and he takes me into the woods were we sit on some fallen oak trees.

He motions for me to sit next to him, and I do, but warily. I hadn't been hit yet, but there was still a chance it could happen.

"I had a cub when I was your age." He tells me flatly.

I stare at him in shocked disbelief. "You did." Not really a question.

He nods. "A girl, too."

"What… what happened to her?" I ask, fearing the answer.

He sighs. "I…" He trials off for a moment, trying to decide where to start. "I didn't tell anyone… that I was with child… I was afraid that… that they would make me give it away. So I hid it from everyone on Freeza's ship."

"Who's baby was she?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "I have no idea. That's not the point of this story. I went into pre-term labor, and had to be rushed to the sick-bay. I started bleeding out, and I nearly died. They cut me, here," He shows me a long scar across his abdomen to one side. It was vertical, not like the C-section scars I had seen on Earth woman. "In order to get her out. She died in my arms less than an hour later."

I give him a sad look. "Da…"

"But if I'd just said something," He continues on, not pauses to hear what I had to say. "If I had only told someone, she might have lived." He looks at me suddenly. "That's why I was so angry when you left; I knew there was a possibility you could become with child, but I didn't want you to do it on your own. You put your life and her life in danger."

"But I wasn't on my own, Kage was there."

He scoffs and rolls his eyes, but doesn't comment on this.

I put an arm around his shoulders. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

He shrugs. "It's hard sometimes, to get the words out when they need to be said."

We were a lot alike. We spent so much time living inside our own heads; it was difficult to communicate to other people what we were thinking. At least I had Lysander who pretty much understood me; but who did Da have? I don't think Papa understood either one of us.

"But she's alive," I say to reassure him. "And everything worked out fine. Everything's going to be alright."

He nods in somewhat agreement and we begin walking back to the house. "What are you going to do about your disaster of a mate?"

I understand he means this as a half-hearted joke; he just isn't so good on the delivery. "Well, we agreed he would go to rehab," I tell him.

"You think that's going to work?"

I shrug. "I don't know. We'll see."

"Addicts always go back to their addictions. If they can't have one thing, they'll find something else to get addicted to."

I nod. I know he is right. When I took away the cocaine, he went running straight to alcohol. Now that the alcohol was gone, he didn't have anywhere to channel his addictive personality.

"Do you think Kage's addiction will run its course? That he'll get better?"

He shrugs. "Hell if I know. It depends on how much he wants it."

I nod and open the door to the house. The baby is crying, and Kage is desperately trying to get her to be quiet.

He had this look of frustration on his face. "I have never needed a drink so badly in my life." He tells me.

I glance over at Da with dismay; who shrugs and goes to his and Papa's bedroom.