Sabriena awoke in a cold sweat, sitting bolt upright in the pitch blackness of the cabin, grabbing her hair and panting. She could feel the bodies of her husbands on either side of her, both of them sleeping soundly. She calmed herself as she realized it was just a dream. The same dream had played over and over in her head. She found herself giving birth to babies covered in bruises that were quickly carted away by faceless CPS workers while Goku sat by, staring disappointedly at her.
"Fucking fuck," she whispered, then clapped her hands to her mouth. Tien would scold her and make her do a million pushups if he'd heard that. She glanced down at him; he was usually such a light sleeper, but in his exhaustion she was fairly certain she could run a freight train through the cabin without waking him.
She carefully slid off the foot of the bed and found her way to the table, grabbing up the little box of matches, and lit the oil lamp. She quickly went to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of jeans and a tank, dressing in the dim light. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror; there were dark circles starting to form around her eyes and her hair was a mess. "You look like shit," she hissed at her reflection and quickly yanked a brush through her hair before braiding it into two low, loose pigtails. The only thing she could think about was Goten. Where was he? Who was he with? Was he sleeping? Were there other children there for him to play with? Had he been given enough at supper to eat? A Saiyan appetite was unnerving to someone who wasn't used to it. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she thought about him and the last time they'd tried to cook together. He was so scared after he knocked the mixing bowl on the floor and it smashed. She never, ever wanted him to look at her with that scared expression again.
The way the moonlight streamed through the window told her it couldn't have been much past midnight. She sighed, realizing it was hopeless to try to go back to sleep. She simply had too much on her mind. Goku had asked her not to lose sleep over anything, but it was too late. There was no way she could go back to sleep after everything that had happened that day. Her time with Goku in the hot tub had been amazing, yet it unnerved her at the same time. She hated denying Goku of anything. His whispered words, the feel of his teeth at her neck, the deep filling of her body as his seed spilled into her inner depths. It was intense and intimate and had it not been for her previous surgery, she knew he'd have gotten his wish right then and there. She shivered.
The caseworker could show up at any time that week. Hell, he or she could show up first thing in the morning. Sabriena glanced around the cabin, trying to see it with a critical eye. The floor suddenly seemed rather dirty from their constant coming and going. Cold ashes filled the bottom of the fireplace. There was the thinnest blanket of dust on the mantle. The windows were a bit dusty and grimy.
Sabriena sighed, furious with herself. They were little things, things she and Tien had never paid attention to because they were always there. Cleanliness was subjective out in the wilderness. By no means was their home filthy, but all these little things added up to a well-lived-in, rustic way of life. But would a caseworker, someone trained to scrutinize every detail, have that same view? Probably not. A fear settled into her chest, that faceless worker condemning their home, taking away Goku's rights to his son, all because she didn't keep an immaculate house.
She groaned in frustration as she sat at the table and pulled on her old sneakers. Sabriena had always been terrible at keeping house before she met Tien. Her father barely messed with those things when he was alive and her mother had passed away before Sabriena had been old enough to learn it from her. Laundry was always put off until there were absolutely no clothes left to wear. Dishes would pile up on the countertops for weeks. She had even once simply thrown all the dishes away and went to out and bought new ones because she didn't want to wash the old set.
People were rarely allowed in her father's house because of the mess and before she had let Tien and Goku come visit for the first time, she'd begged Jenny and Lindsey to come help her do a massive deep-cleaning of his home. Luckily it had pretty well stayed that way afterwards. Mr. Schuler worked so much he was rarely there and every time they went to visit, she would discreetly slip downstairs to wash his laundry or empty the trash. Goku or Tien always offered to wash the dishes after dinner and never said a word if there was an extra plate or two sitting in the sink. Mr. Schuler had taken to eating out most of the time, so there was rarely a dish to wash.
She thought she'd been keeping up rather well in her cabin. Tien was good about keeping up on his laundry and Goku didn't mind washing their dishes since they were made out of tin and he couldn't break them. On the occasion that one bent, he'd laugh and blush, then bend it back to its original shape, or at least as close to it as he could get it. But now, looking at the way a stranger from the city might view her home, she thought it looked terribly dirty. She grabbed the broom from the corner and swept the floor as thoroughly as she could, then grabbed the ash bucket and emptied the fireplace. She sighed again, realizing there was so much work to be done. And that was on top of her regular chores.
Cooking three meals a day, tending to Sibby and the chickens, working the garden, chopping wood, laundry most days, and training. Goku wasn't going to like it, but training was going to have to wait. They had little time to whip this place into shape. And on top of that, the hay was growing tall in the meadow up the hill. They were going to have to start haying soon if Sibby stood a chance of surviving the winter; Sabriena was now second-thinking the idea of taking on more animals, a notion she'd been toying with for quite some time.
Dog stretched and yawned, getting up from his bed in the corner and trotted over to her. She scratched at his ears. "C'mon," she said softly to him. "No sense in wasting time." He followed her out the door into the hot, dark night. Barely a breeze stirred as Sabriena grabbed up a bucket and headed to the river. The waning moonlight lit up the yard and the river and she was thankful that they had at least three weeks before they had to deal with the full moon again.
Goku was slowly getting better at controlling himself on those days, he was more grabby than aggressive now, but it was still a marked change on those days than he was the rest of the month. Saiyan PMS, Sabriena always thought in her head, but she never voiced it out loud. She didn't want to embarrass Goku like that.
She filled her bucket in the river as Dog thirstily lapped at the water. She wrinkled her nose at him, "Do you have to drool so much?" The big, spotty Great Dane panted happily at her. She sighed. "Go on then. I know you're hot." He snorted at her then ran out into the river, splashing happily and biting at the moon's reflection on the water. "Useless," she muttered and hauled her bucket back up to the cabin.
She set the bucket on the floor and grabbed a bar of the lye soap Tien made. She grated it into the bucket and gathered some rags. She decided to start with the fireplace, seeing as how it was the dirtiest, and ducked into it, scrubbing at the stones. The fireplace turned out to be a much bigger project than Sabriena had anticipated. She'd scrubbed and scrubbed at the stones, washing away the soot and ashes until the stones were a beautiful light grey color once more. She was amazed. The interior of the fireplace had never been that clean before, at least not from what she'd seen.
Over and over, she kept dumping the dirty water outside and refilling it in the river. Dog was flopped out in the soft grass outside, sopping wet and happy as a fat kid in a candy store. She washed the mantle and wiped down the stones on the outside of the fireplace, which thankfully were only slightly dusty. She carried the bucket to the corner of the cabin where Dog slept, near the foot of their bed. She picked up the huge, shallow basket that Tien had woven from cattails and carried it and Dog's blankets outside, tossing them in the yard to be cleaned.
Tien never ceased to amaze her with his craftsmanship. When Goku moved in, he'd built a third chair for their table that perfectly matched the other two, and then later made three more after that to accommodate any guests who stopped by so that their table had a perfect six-place setting. He'd also built a new dresser for the cabin, taking the time to carve intricate footings for it and polishing it until it shone. Sabriena loved that dresser. She dropped to her knees and began to wash the floor; another chore she'd never done since she had moved in over a year ago. Oh, how her life had changed in such a short amount of time. She was rather proud of herself, truth be told.
She'd gone from a spoiled rotten, materialistic, self-centered teenager to a responsible, mature young woman who cared more for others than she did for her own vanity. From living in a party house with others who cared for little more than themselves with constant noise to a tiny cabin in the Japanese wilderness with nothing more than her husbands and the sound of the waterfall. Her husbands. Oh, how she loved them so.
Stoic, grounded Tien who was her safe place. The man who had caused this change in her, who had seen her value and her worth when no one else could or would. The man who taught her that material things were far less important than the people you love, who had taught her how to fight, to be patient, to be okay with the silence and her own thoughts.
And happy, silly Goku who she could cut up with and laugh, who would dance in the rain with her or randomly chase her through a field of flowers and tickle her until she screamed if the mood struck him. The strongest fighter in the universe, yet so gentle, so adorably naïve, and so full of love that it just seemed to radiate from him to everyone around them. His love for his children, his grandson, his friends, for Tien, for her. It was easy to get lost in that love and just want to sit near him, bathing in it. Both of them hers, and she theirs, and theirs unto each other.
Her husbands, who had risked life and limb to rescue her when she could not do so for herself. Who had stood beside her at her father's wake, both unabashedly introducing themselves as her husbands to the friends and family who came to pay their last respects. Her husbands who worked tirelessly to keep their little farm going, who spent long days in the hot sun tilling and weeding and watering and sawing and chopping. Who adored her cooking and ate it gratefully, always complimenting her lavishly for another meal. The men she crawled into bed with every night, who held her and kissed her gently without need to do anything more than to simply be next to her; who lay flat on their backs, staring up at the rafters as she read novels aloud to them as if they were all watching a movie together in their heads, Goku asking any random question that crossed his mind and Tien shushing him.
Her handsome, powerful husbands who were all muscle and sinew and raw lust as they made love together to her, bringing her the most carnal of pleasures, pushing her to her brink, yet always ensuring she was safe and unhurt. She'd never known love and trust and acceptance until she came to this place and to them. They were her whole world, her very life, the reason she was put on this earth. It was her calling to take care of them, to be that soft place where they could rest at the end of a weary day, where she could soothe and heal the aching muscles, the years of loneliness, the hurts of the world around them. Always treated as an equal, despite the traditional female role that she chose to play. It was her choice to cook and clean for them. She loved it. She loved the feeling of being needed and appreciated for the things she did. It fulfilled her. She could work and train just as hard as any man and certainly hold her own against them, and then put on a pretty skirt and braid her hair and cook them a gourmet meal over an open fire.
She smiled smugly to herself now, thinking that feminists everywhere would tear their hair out at the life she lived. But wasn't that was feminism was about? Choices? This was her choice and she couldn't imagine her life any other way, nor did she want to.
And now there was Goten to consider. How could they make it work, to bring him to this place? Camping under the stars had been fun for him, but they couldn't expect him to sleep outside all the time, especially when the winter came again. Sabriena cursed the cold weather that she knew would return, despite the fact that it was now late summer and the weather was swelteringly hot. He was going to have to have a bed. But Goku had said Goten needed his own room, according to the CPS workers. Damn. Perhaps, if they made up for it in other ways, the caseworker could let that slide if he had his own bed to sleep in. And feeding Goten on a constant basis was going to prove problematic.
It was hard enough feeding Goku over the past few months. The stocks in their root cellar were growing increasingly lower and Sabriena was worried. Even if they managed to coax every last bit of food from their garden, she still wasn't sure if they were going to survive the winter. She supposed purchasing food for Goku was an option. For herself and Tien, it was not. They had both become so accustomed to unprocessed, natural food that to eat anything from a store made them ill. She shuddered at the memory of the night that followed the Christmas party. She and Tien had both been ill for days. And what would the caseworker say about their supply, or lack thereof, of food? The garden wasn't quite ready for harvesting yet and the preserves in the root cellar were less than impressive.
In fact, Sabriena hadn't let Goku or Tien go into the root cellar for weeks because she didn't want them to worry. There was always the option of hunting year round and foraging when the weather was good, but both were a crapshoot. There was never a guarantee that you were coming home with a meal. And a city-slicker wouldn't see that. Sabriena realized that they were going to have to prove that they had a way to provide food for Goten and themselves and the only thing she could reason that would work would be to take on more animals out of necessity. She originally wanted them because, to be honest, she liked animals far more than she liked people and except for a few bad roosters, she found she enjoyed taking care of them. But her original idea was based on want, not need, and she didn't like feeling backed into a corner.
More animals meant more work building shelters and fences and more haying. But it ensured a comfortable winter and could show the caseworker that they had a variety of foods to eat; foods that were considered "normal" such as cow's milk instead of goat's milk, which was sparse as it was. Sibby simply couldn't produce enough milk to meet the new demands of feeding a Saiyan on a constant basis. Add in a second Saiyan, even a little one, and things were going to go downhill quick. And while they could purchase canned goods for Goku and Goten, fresh foods like milk from the store wouldn't last out here without refrigeration.
Sabriena finished scrubbing the floor and dumped the dirty water out the front steps. Sweating and covered in dirt and soot, she sat on the edge of the porch and leaned back against the cabin, staring over the expanse of land that their cabin sat on.
She could see it in her mind's eye, the way they could set it up, make it work. Putting in a small hay barn there at the bottom of the hill, where there was a path that led up to the meadow. A corral for a diary cow or two? A lot for a hog, perhaps some sheep? She groaned as she thought about it. Did they have the time to be messing with new buildings and fences? No. Could they risk losing Goten by not proving that they could provide for him in such a way? No, they couldn't do that either. And she'd really had to twist Tien's arm to let her have the goat in the first place. Although he wasn't complaining now that they had fresh milk, butter, and cheese.
She didn't know what to do. All she knew was that she wanted Goten home, here at the cabin, as soon as possible. And she was desperate enough to do anything to get him back.
Tien stretched and yawned, his eyes fluttering open in the early morning light. He smiled when he saw Goku sleeping so close to him and scooted a little closer, hugging him and lightly kissing his cheekbone. Goku stirred slightly, but didn't wake up. Tien smiled once more before rolling over to get out of bed. His breath caught when he sat up. "What on earth?"
Sabriena smiled at him as she pulled a heavy skillet from the fireplace. "Morning, sexy."
Tien rubbed at his eyes and got up, the floor felt weird under his feet. It felt slicker than normal and he looked down, surprised to see the warm gleam the floorboards had. "Did you mop the cabin?"
Sabriena nodded. "Well, scrubbed on my hands and knees is more like. And polished it. And cleaned out the fireplace and washed the windows and…"
"Didn't you sleep at all?" he interrupted in a concerned voice, walking over to her.
"No," she answered a little too quickly, "No, not really." She served their breakfast of fresh eggs, biscuits with gravy, and plenty of coffee, which she had obviously already consumed plenty of. "Go wake up Goku, won't you?"
Tien shook his head and scrubbed at one eye with the heel of his hand as he yawned, but he walked back over to the bed and shook Goku awake. "Hey, get up. Breakfast is ready. And I think the wife's lost her mind."
Goku stretched out, his back arching up as he lifted his arms above his head, yawning and blinking sleepily at Tien. He smiled, "Morning. Is breakfast ready already?" He pushed himself up before moving his legs over to the side of the bed as he pushed himself out of bed. He felt contented and sated. He didn't want to leave his dreams, but he couldn't hide for ever. He stood and stretched again, remembering he had gone to bed naked and went to the wardrobe to get some pants on as he looked around. "Wasn't the cabin, ah, less clean when we went to bed?" The smell of the food caught his attention and his stomach grumbled loudly.
Tien pulled on a pair of his green pants as well. "Ya think?" he asked, "You can thank little miss Suzy Homemaker over there for that. And I know she was cleaner before I went to bed."
Sabriena returned to the table, her arms and face streaked with soot from the fireplace, her shirt looking rather dirty and her hair in fly-aways where it had fallen loose from the braids. "Yeah, well, couldn't sleep," she said and sat down to her breakfast.
Goku frowned as he went over to the table and sat down at his usual spot, breathing in the delicious scents for a moment. "Was it because of last night?" He looked at her and reached out to tuck one of the flyaway pieces of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry about something else."
"It's everything," she answered, digging into her plate. "Bad dreams." She chewed for a minute before she continued. "There's just so much work to be done. I don't know how I'm ever going to finish it all in time," she said in a worried voice, looking the cabin over again and shook her head.
Goku sighed, "Sabriena. Tien. I'm sorry about all of this. To be honest with you, and I don't mean to sound like I don't care, but I was kind of hoping they would have placed Goten with Gohan. I feel like if I don't at least try to fight for him, I'll never see him again. I wish I knew what else to do. I know this is a tough situation for both of you."
Tien grabbed his coffee and drank deeply from it. It was too early for this. "You're fine, Goku. All I care about is making sure your son is safe. I'm surprised, though. I figured you'd want him here with you."
"Whether Goten ends up here or at Gohan's, they're not going to keep him away from Chichi if we don't put in a SERIOUS effort to make this place suitable for him. That caseworker could be here at any minute!" Sabriena cried. "We don't have a bed for Goten, we don't have enough food on hand, there's tons of chores to be done, and this is all stuff that we should've thought about anyway, caseworker or no caseworker. Goten will only be able to spend so many nights outside before the snow flies this winter. Then where would he sleep?" Her voice was becoming more panicked as she spoke and she took another huge drink of coffee. "And we have to get more food, keep a steady supply on hand. The cellar..." she stopped herself and tucked into her breakfast again.
Goku nodded, his head trying to keep up with Sabriena's speech and he pointed at her and looked at Tien. "I would love to have him out here with us, but like she said, where would he sleep during the winter? The full moon still happens in the winter. What on those nights? I don't mean to make it sound like I don't want him. I do, more than anything, but maybe if the cabin was bigger, if we had more food. Gohan is more prepared to take care of his brother than I am. It's closer to town, little Trunks can visit him more frequently. Wait. What's wrong with the cellar? "
Sabriena ducked her head a little closer to her plate and ate quicker.
"Sabriena?" Tien asked in a slow, scolding tone. "What is it?"
"It's... erm... a little low," she muttered.
"We low on meat again?" Tien asked, "I can go hunting today. That's not a big deal."
"We're low on everything," she answered. She sighed and looked up at her husbands. "At this rate, we're not going to have anything left before fall hits. I know the garden's doing well and I hope we can put up a bunch of preserves from it. It's doing even better than last year. But what if a big storm hits or the weather goes really dry in the next few weeks? We could lose everything. And then what? We have to do something. And I'm sorry, but I refuse to feed you all crap from the store."
"I wouldn't eat it anyway," Tien muttered, remembering the last time he'd eaten commercially prepared food. He paused for a minute, leaning his elbow on the table and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay, let me think." He sighed. "We've still got a bit of the Beltane ashes. We can put that on the garden to get a bigger harvest. I hate to do it, though. I kind'a wanted to keep those on hand for an emergency."
"We could always get more livestock," Sabriena suggested cautiously. She didn't want Tien to think that she was taking advantage of the situation just to try to get more pets. That wasn't what this was about.
Tien shook his head slowly, "That's a lot of extra work, baby. If we do that, we're all gonna have to really step up our chores." He could feel the emotion from her through their bond; this request didn't come from selfishness. It came from concern for Goten and he knew her heart was in the right place. He just didn't know if she was thinking it through properly.
"Isn't it worth it if we can save Goten?" she protested.
"What do you think, Goku?" Tien asked. "You're being awfully quiet. You have a say-so in all of this, too."
Goku was sad as he looked at the food on his plate. There was much more on his than on Tien's and Sabriena's combined. "It's my fault, isn't it?" He managed a small, mirthless laugh, "I'm eating you guys out of house and home. And goten will have the same appetite." He sighed. He didn't know what to do. His heart panged in his chest. "You both would be fine if I didn't live here." He looked up at them and held up a hand as they opened their mouths to protest. "Teach me how to hunt better. I can help get more food. I can do whatever it takes. I could even see if Bulma has some extra food she can give me every month or so. I guess Goten living here isn't going to workout..." He swallowed and looked at them both, "I'm selfish. I want time with you two alone. I just want the caseworker to say that Goten can come out here to stay every so often, like the weekend he was out here. If Gohan took him, I'd be alright with that."
Sabriena slammed her fork on the table. "Dammit, Goku! You can't have that kind of attitude with this person! Chichi is going to be fighting tooth and nail to get Goten back. You HAVE to make it look like you're putting in the same effort or they're going to think you don't care! If nothing else, if you could get custody, then YOU could send him to stay with Gohan. BUT WE HAVE TO TRY." She was on her feet the next instant, her shoulders shaking. She fixed him with a hard stare then grabbed up her plate of barely-eaten breakfast and set it on the floor where Dog was anxiously awaiting table scraps. "You all do what you want," she barked, "I have work to do, because I am NOT letting that little boy go back to HER!" And with that she stormed out of the cabin and slammed the door behind her.
Goku stared after her wide eyed, stopping himself from cringing at her shouts. He swallowed and glanced over at Tien. "Guess she's taking the mother thing very seriously." He sighed and ate a few bites of his breakfast. "She does have a point. I would sooner die than let Chichi touch him again. Guess we'd better shape up; guess I'd better shape up. I can't believe this mess. How did this happen, Tien?" He looked at the door, feeling warmth spread through him. Sabriena was fighting tooth and nail for his son. How could he do any less? He just didn't want her to worry.
"It isn't your fault," Tien reassured him. He didn't like the way Goku spoke, how he just seemed defeated already and the fight hadn't even started yet. Not really. He'd never known Goku to be like this. He realized in that moment just how heavily this was weighing on his husband. It didn't matter if you were the strongest warrior in the universe; every man has a breaking point. And Tien feared that Goku was dangerously close to that point.
He scooted his plate next to Goku's and quickly changed seats to sit next to him, throwing a heavy arm around his shoulders. "She's right, though. Even if Goten goes to stay with Gohan, these are things we're going to have to address for when he comes to visit us." He paused for a minute, his mind working furiously. "We can do it. Maybe we'll get lucky and have a few days to make this place a little better before that worker shows up. We can hunt all day long, but that's not a guaranteed food source. Not one that they could see anyway. I'm afraid Sabriena's right. I'm gonna need your help, though."
He leaned into Tien's embrace and smiled at him, his words lifting his spirits. "You have it of course. And so does Sabriena. I'll do whatever you need me to, Tien. Whatever it takes." He chuckled and looked down at his plate. "Guess I'm going to have to thank her again! Maybe I can find more of those mushrooms she likes."
Tien squeezed Goku's shoulders tightly before he released him. "There we go. Let's eat and get busy. I'll start building Goten a bed as soon as we're done with breakfast. How's that sound?"
Goku's face lit up and he nodded excitedly, "That'd be perfect, Tien!" He ate at an increased pace, eager to get started. They would be okay. Even if he had to go get a supply of food from Bulma. He snapped his fingers, "I can go get a separate supply of food from Bulma. Just for Goten and me! We eat all that anyway and it won't make us as sick as you or Sabriena. It'll help!" He chewed thoughtfully. He couldn't wait to start building the bed.
Tien shook his head. "Don't bother Bulma. Sabriena has money. She'll buy it for you. Bulma does enough for us as it is. Just make sure you take Sabriena with you. She'll be able to tell what will keep well better than you or I could."
They finished their breakfast and headed outside, Tien going over the types of wood he could use to make a bed for Goten. He spotted Sabriena near the side of the cabin, leaning heavily against the goat's side as she milked. "You ready to play nice yet?" he teased.
"I'm BUSY," she snapped back without looking at him.
He snorted in an amused sort of way. "Don't mind her, Goku. She's just in a mood. She'll get over it if we keep a safe distance."
Goku nodded, watching her carefully as she just closed her eyes and kept milking the goat. He nodded and followed Tien. "What do we need to do first?" he asked. He looked back over his shoulder at Sabriena. "I'll talk to her when she's calmer."
Tien chuckled and pulled open the door to the small tool shed behind the cabin. "Don't be scared of her. She just needs to cool off. We both get like that sometimes," he said. He looked over the tools and his supply of lumber, a smile pulling at his lips. "Alright, let's get to it then."